Rhode Island PBS Weekly | All That Glitters | Season 4 | Episode 16 | PBS

All That Glitters

Clip: Season 4 Episode 16 | 8m 53sVideo has Closed Captions | CC

Providence was crowned THE costume jewelry capital—now those vintage pieces are in vogue.

Aired 04/16/2023

All That Glitters Clip: Season 4 Episode 16 | 8m 53sVideo has Closed Captions | CC

Providence was crowned THE costume jewelry capital—now those vintage pieces are in vogue.

Providence has long worn the crown as the Costume Jewelry Capital—not just because of the skilled artisans who created it but also because of the engineers who designed the tools to mass

produce it. Now one man is trying to preserve this golden legacy right downtown where it all began. It comes just as a new generation is discovering Providence-made retro jewelry is a new

avenue of sustainability.

Aired 04/16/2023

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About This ClipTranscriptYou Might Also LikeAll That Glitters Clip: Season 4 Episode 16 | 8m 53sVideo has Closed Captions | CC

Providence has long worn the crown as the Costume Jewelry Capital—not just because of the skilled artisans who created it but also because of the engineers who designed the tools to mass

produce it. Now one man is trying to preserve this golden legacy right downtown where it all began. It comes just as a new generation is discovering Providence-made retro jewelry is a new

avenue of sustainability.

Aired 04/16/2023

Problems playing video?  Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page.

Type of ErrorVideo doesn’t loadVideo loads, but doesn’t playVideo jumps back/forwardOnly audio is streamingSponsorship playback errorOtherSubmitCancelGenreNews and Public AffairsFollow

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All That Glitters S4 Ep16

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(street noise) - [Pamela] In an old industrial building in Cranston, nondescript outside, (door latch closing) the charm of bangles and bobbles gleams inside.

- Well, if you look at this really amazing pin from the 30s.

- [Pamela] Peter DiCristofaro has a master collection spanning two centuries.

It captures the innovation, creativity, and culture of craftsmanship that molded the capital city.

- This is the holy grail for us where we have the original sketch.

We have the original bronze molds that this piece of costume jewelry was made in and then we find a piece on the market that came from it.

We have all three, and for us, this can't speak any louder for what went on in the city of Providence.

- [Pamela] Providence, the gem of the jewelry industry and kings of costume jewelry.

- The processes were brilliant, the pieces were beautiful.

Who cared that they made a thousand of them?

(machine stamping metal) - [Pamela] And the locally engineered machinery that cranked out affordable fashion accessories.

- And they came up with these magnificent American built machines, whereas now, instead of making an inch a minute of chain, they were making 12 inches a minute.

I'm the archeologist.

I dug the hole and found it.

I didn't go to archeology school.

- [Pamela] In fact, DiCristofaro went to pharmacy school, but turns out he had real chemistry with another element... Gold.

How did you become bedazzled by the jewelry industry?

- My summer jobs were in a family jewelry factory.

Every summer I'd go to pharmacy school, learn chemistry.

I'd go to work in the summer and learn how to make jewelry.

And by the time I was done with pharmacy school, I was interested in the jewelry.

I wasn't interested in pharmacy.

Then we cookie cut out the excess silver.

- [Pamela] DiCristofaro spent many hours in his uncle's factory like so many Rhode Islanders.

- And what you're left with is the stamping all trimmed out.

When you think of 30 or 40,000 people making their living in one little industry, in one little city.

- In one little state.

- In one little state, it's pretty profound.

- [Pamela] It was DiCristofaro's uncle who urged him to salvage the remains of the industry as jewelry manufacturing migrated overseas in the late 1970s.

So he founded the Providence Jewelry Museum.

- I personally bought over 150 jewelry companies and then I attended the liquidation of the end to another hundred.

When they were closing the factories, we would buy them.

And then we would always take something for the jewelry museum.

- [Pamela] His museum chronicles the origins of the industry starting in the 1700s with silver spoons made by Seril Dodge who worked and lived in the brick building that is now the

Providence Art Club.

Dodge's company then designed something that radically transformed jewelry making.

- In Providence, we took a piece of gold, we put it on a piece of metal of lower value, made a sandwich, and made that cladding of gold.

It all happened here.

It was the first merchandising of gold in American history.

(machine stamping metal) And with the cladding of metals, they could take orders from around the world.

- [Pamela] That cladding or gold covering of non precious metal, rolled gold, gold filled, and ultimately electroplating and stamping brass made Providence shine.

In the late 1800s, many immigrants brought old world artistry to the factories.

Companies tinkered with technology, developing cutting edge tool and dye equipment.

A real boom started in the 1930s and peaked in the 70s.

- My grandmother came from Italy.

She didn't have the money to have a broach like Queen Elizabeth, which was worth $10 million.

But she had $10 to go to Woolworths and buy an imitation of it.

- [Pamela] DiCristofaro is an encyclopedia of jewelry stories.

He says, one Providence company, Otsby and Barton, produced the molds known as, "Hubs," for Tiffany's iconic diamond solitaire engagement ring.

- It became the rage and the volume.

And where did they come to have this ring made?

They came to Providence, Rhode Island.

And there's the original hubs that made the ring.

- [Pamela] In 1912, Tiffany's relationship with 64 year old Engelhart Cornelius OØstby, the company's co-owner, came to a tragic end.

- Mr. OØstby put his daughter on the lifeboat and he went down with the Titanic.

- [Pamela] Decades later, OØstby and Barton's connection with Tiffany's came full circle when DiCristofaro enticed Tiffany & Company to establish a manufacturing plant in Cumberland.

- In 2001, those two hubs went back to Tiffany, their new factory in Rhode Island and they copied them.

And today they make that engagement ring in the Tiffany Rhode Island factory from those two originals.

- [Pamela] Today, they also make their popular heart tags here along with coveted items like the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl trophy.

What can you tell me about this bracelet?

- Oh my God.

- [Pamela] I asked him about my grandmother's bracelet.

- [Peter] You have two colors of gold or gold clad.

You have rose and you have green.

It was made like a fine piece of jewelry, even though it's clad metal.

And I guarantee you it was made in Providence.

- [Pamela] Now DiCristofaro wants to return to Providence its golden legacy, moving his museum to Chestnut Street downtown, the heart of the once flourishing jewelry district.

He's renting and renovating the 1826 Palmer House, where at one time gold rings were made.

- A jewelry factory on every corner and every inch, names that the whole world recognizes like Coro, Trifari, Monet and Hedison.

- These little fine necklaces are very hot with young people.

These happen to be made by Hedy, which is Hedison, made in Rhode Island.

- [Pamela] Christine Francis owns Carmen & Ginger, a retro jewelry store.

(cardboard boxes opening) Originally located in Providence's Arcade, she's setting up a new larger shop in Warren.

Francis says, "Vintage is in vogue, especially among millennials and Gen Xers."

Is it because of the sustainability?

- I think that's part of it, yeah, they're very mindful of not being wasteful and using things, you know, for years.

I think it's the uniqueness.

I think we have a generation that doesn't really wanna look like everybody else.

The nice thing about costume jewelry is, you walk into a store and generally it's one of a kind.

You're gonna see one thing.

They can come into a secondhand store, a thrift store, a vintage store, an antique store and find something that's much better made than what's at the mall, and way more interesting than

what's at the mall.

- What's most popular among the things that you have?

- This organic trend of birds and flowers and butterflies.

In the seventies, they were popular and they're popular again now.

- Well, this Johnson & Wales building, most people don't know, was the largest jewelry factory in the world in the 1800s.

They made rings and pins.

They even made thimbles for women to sew with.

- [Pamela] College students have now transformed the old jewelry district into the knowledge district with Johnson & Wales and Brown Medical School, among others taking up residency.

Back at the Palmer House... - And it's in that piece of steel that we press the silver or gold to make the piece of jewelry.

- [Pamela] DiCristofaro is planning education workshops at the Providence Jewelry Museum to offer a chance for the next generation to touch the richness of Providence's gilded past.

- They don't have to know everything I know.

They don't have to learn to be jewelers, but if they come and experience what we do in our workshops at the museum, they're gonna take a bite of what I call, "The tactile qualities of man."

You're looking at something, it gets bent, it gets turned and before you know it, it's on your finger as a ring.

It's brilliant.

Most people think this stuff came down from heaven.

They've never seen it made.

(Pamela chuckling) (violins begin playing) (violins continue playing)

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