Gubelin
Gübelin is a swiss company well known today for its gemological expertise. Jakob Breitschmid opened his shop on the Pfistergrasse in Lucerne in 1854, a watchmaking shop. In the late 1870s he took on an apprentice named Eduard Jakob Gübelin. Gübelin was born in East Switzerland in 1861 and moved to Lucerne to become a master craftsman at Breitschmid. He even spent time in Paris as a jeweler then Gübelin returned to Lucerne and re-joined Breitschmid. In 1886 Gübelin married his Breitschmid's daughter Bertha and became a business partner. He took over the business in 1899 and renamed it the House of Gübelin. In 1903 he opened a boutique in the former Hotel d’Angleterre on the Schwanenplatz right on the shore of Lake Lucerne. Then in 1923 they opened their own workshops to design and craft in house. That same year Gübelin’s son, Eduard Moritz, set up a small gemological laboratory to test and assess the gemstones that the firm was going to use. This was the beginning of the laboratory known today. In 1945 Eduard’s sons Walter assumed responsibility for the business managing the running of the business. His brother Eduard Josef looked after the gems and laboratory. Eduard spent years studying gemstones both in Europe and the USA. He even invented instruments to further his research. He became a pioneer in the art of photomicrography. He recorded the inclusions that aided identification and value assessments. Today the Gübelin gemological laboratory has branches in Hong Kong and New York as well as Lucerne.
