Founded in 1947 B.David Company was a family business owned by Carl E. Martin (1919 – 1987) and his wife Marie (nee Barrett). Carl and Marie named the company after their new-born son David B. Martin. Located at 2508 Vine street, Cincinnati 19, Ohio, the company employed approximately 20 people. They manufactured costume jewelry using high quality materials. In particular, rhodium-plated Austrian machine-cut crystal and colored stones hand set in beautifully finished rhodium plated mountings.

Elegant designs included crown and floral brooches, crosses, bracelets, necklaces, pins, and earrings. Noteworthy, the firm also manufactured fine jewelry made of precious metals and gemstones. The company used several trademarks – B. David inside an oval frame or b. David arranged inside a divided square. The third trademark used by the firm consists of letters bd arranged diagonally.

B.David sold beautifully boxed jewelry through retail jewelers and local representatives in all states. The company widely advertised their fine fashion jewelry in the 1950-60s, published mostly in the Jewelers’ Circular Keystone.

In 1970 David Bruce Martin (February 15, 1947 – June 17, 2021), son of Carl and Marie Martin, took over the company and worked until his retirement in the 1990s.

In these stunning family crown brooches, each crystal represented the birth month of one of the family members:

January – garnet, deep red; February – amethyst, violet; March – aquamarine, light blue. April – diamond, transparent;
May – emerald, dark green; June – alexandrite – lavender; July – ruby ​​- scarlet; August – peridot, light green. September – sapphire, blue; October – pink zircon, pink; November – topaz, amber-yellow; December – blue zircon, deep blue.

B.David Jewellery Company History