The history of Curtis Jewelry Manufacturing Company began in 1949, when it was registered at 861 Broad Street in Providence, Rhode Island. A manufacturer of precious metal jewelry, Curtis Jewelry Mfg Co was a division of Chicago based company Donald Bruce & Co.

Led by president Gary Solomon, Curtis Jewelry Mfg. Co. employed 150 people. According to the 1950 Providence Business Directory, it was a fairly large corporation, with annual sales of $10 to $25 million. Vice-presidents were Howard Solomon, David Toppin, Michael McWilliams, Ed Anderson, William Jobbins, and Yaffa Leitman.
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David Jay Orman (1917–1990), the son of Joseph Orman and Sara Mason Orman, was born in Chicago and was a prominent jewelry wholesaler and manufacturer. In 1939, he married Marcelle Bernstein and founded the David Bensen Company that same year.

The company’s headquarters were located at 59 E. Madison Street in Chicago. The family business was led by David Jay Orman as president and Marcelle Orman as vice president and treasurer. In 1944, the company moved to a new building at 5 N. Wabash Ave, where it remained until 1948.
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The history of jewelry manufacturer Harwood Mfg Co began in Providence in 1926 and spanned seven decades. Today, jewelry from this company is rare and highly collectible. Information about the company, its jewelry lines, and the materials used for jewelry creations has been preserved through advertisements, which appeared most frequently in the 1940s and 1950s.

The most interesting and informative ad was in Jewelers’ Circular in March 1951, confirming the company’s founding date – 1926. According to the advertisement, “It has been an interesting quarter century. Through two world wars, depressions, and booms, the firm has persevered.”
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Born in Vienna, Austria, Kurt Wayne (1909-1990) was raised in a Catholic orphanage until the age of ten. Then his life changed dramatically when a local jeweler took him under his wing. This marked the beginning of his career in jewelry, to which he dedicated his entire life.

Kurt Wayne and Gusty married in 1937, and two years later, when thousands of Jews fled Austria, Kurt and his pregnant wife had to leave Europe for the US. Their son, Ronald K. Wayne was born in New York, on October 26, 1939. Settling in New York, Kurt and Gusty began learning English and Kurt found work at a watch strap company.
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While still a teenager, Bayard F. Brogan (1888-1966) began his career as an apprentice in jewelry workshops of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1908, after several years of hard work, he and a partner founded a small workshop at 805 Sansom Street. Within a few years, his firm had grown into a major manufacturer of gold and platinum mountings manufacturer known from coast to coast.

A self-taught jeweler, Brogan became a professional, inventor, designer, and expert, earning recognition from his peers. In the 1920s, his lectures on modern jewelry production methods were attended by members of the National Association of Jewelers.
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