posted 05-30-2017 07:06 PM            

THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
Dec. 14, 1892
pg 22

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The Silversmiths’ Co. Incorporated Under the Laws of New York State.

Guggenheimer & Untermeyer, attorneys, filed Saturday in the County Clerk's office. New York, the certificate of incorporation of the Silversmiths’ Company, with a capital of $12,000,000. The incorporators are : Edw S. Innet, Win. A. Miles. Charles Shiebler and Adelbert J. Dunham. The directors are; Edward S. Innet. Wiliam .A Miles, Bartow Drake Smith, Thomas Midlan, Moses Weinman, Albert White, John T. Brown, William D. Barclay, John W. Hesse, John J. Brady, Adelbert J. Dunham, J. Bruce Bonny and Charles Shiebler.

By the articles of incorporation the company is authorized to acquire the property of any firm engaged in a similar business, to assume its liabilities and to give cash, shares of stock or obligations in payment. The directors are authorized to issue debenture certificates to the amount of $S, 000,000. As given by the papers, the company’s business is to manufacture, deal in and contract for the sale, purchase and exchange of gold and silverware, plated-ware. crockery, metal ware, cutlery, leather ware, wooden ware, silks, tools and machinery It will do business as principal, agent on commission and as consignee. It may allow the firms whose property it acquires to do business on almost any terms the directors may deem beneficial

The present companies comprised in the new corporation are the Gorham Mfg Co., the Whiting Mfg. Co., Dominick & Haff, the Geo. W. Shiebler Co., and the Towle Mfg. Co.

An interview with one of the leading houses interested in the new organization of the Silversmiths’ Company, namely The Gorham Mfg. Co., develops the fact that among all the houses practically interested in the new company there is a strong feeling regarding the manner in which the news has been exploited by the different trade journals, and in this interview credit was given to The Circular for having published the authorized facts exactly as they were presented last week, and the conservative course of this journal in printing only what was authorized was commented on as being in marked contrast with the publication of street rumors as to the intentions of new company, and the foreshadowing of its future policy, some of the remarks being based upon the merest gossip and without any foundation in fact. These articles as published, it is generally thought, might be considered in place in some of the unreliable, sensational morning journals, but are hardly expected to appear in the columns of a trade journal supposed to be interested in the welfare of the business it represents and in publishing only known facts.

The truth regarding the information given out by those in authority last week is that the parties in interest gave all the information at the time that they was prepared to give, or that could be given correctly by any one. The only fact that has appeared since that time that has any foundation is the news from Albany concerning the filing of the certificate of incorporation, and its filing in the office of the county clerk of New York county and the only figures that can be given out even now are those concerning the authorized capital of the company, and even in the publication of these it should be stated that while this capital is authorized, there is no information as yet given as to what the issued capital is to be, and the figures allotted to the different companies as to the amount which each one will represent in the new company are not only given absolutely without authority by any person entitled to speak but in themselves are quite absurd; and the foreshadowing of the policy of the new company may be considered as thoroughly premature from the fact that the matter has not been discussed by the parties in interest except so far as relates to the article published in our columns last week as being the reasons for organizing in this form.

The present plan is not in the nature of a scheme to sell out, and there will be no ex publishing of a prospectus for the purpose of drawing in outside investors, as the gentlemen who have been and are now active in the management of the different companies propose not only to continue in the active management of the business, but to invest their own capital in thee enterprise. The well earned and thoroughly established success of all the houses in interest insures the prosperity of the company from the commencement.

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THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
Aug. 9, 1893
pg 13

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The Silversmiths’ Co. reduce prices on Flat Ware.

Another reduction in the price of solid silver flat ware was announced Monday, when the members of the Silversmiths’ Co. in this city, namely, The Gorham Mfg. Co., The Whiting Mfg. Co., The Geo. W. Shiebler Co. and Dominick & Haff sent out notices to that effect.

Many of the prominent silver manufacturers visited by a Circular reporter had only just received the notice, and to some the action was unexpected. All, however, stated that they would also follow in reducing the price of the same lines of goods.

The Whiting Mfg. Co. vouchsafed no further information than was obtained in the circular of the Silversmiths Co. Mr. Holbrook, of the Gorham Mfg. Co., said that the action was taken solely to meet the fall in the price of bullion. No other representative of any of the firms in the Silversmiths Co. could be induced to talk.

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THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
Oct. 11, 1893
pg 20

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The Affairs of the Silversmiths’ Company.

The report that the Silversmiths’ Company incorporated early this year would never come into actual existence has been officially denied. An investigation, however, showed that at present the affairs of the company are in statu quo. No stock has yet been issued and the five companies, the Gorham Mfg. Co., Whiting Mfg. Co., Dominick & Haff, Geo. W. Shiebler Co., and Towle Mfg. Co., which were to be embodied in and form the company have as yet taken no steps in that direction.

Edward Holbrook, of the Gorham Mfg. Co., told a Circular reporter that the only proper statement that could be made was that the companies composing the Silversmiths’ Company have decided to take no action for the present toward consummating the original arrangement. The understanding at the formation was that the companies were to join at a future time not definitely stated. The decision to take no definite action at present, therefore, could in no way be construed as an abandonment of the original plan. Every step so far taken has been mutual and unanimous.

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THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
Dec. 5, 1894
pg 17

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The Silversmiths’ Company Reduce Their Capital Stock.

Albany, N. Y., Nov. 28, 1894. A certificate of the reduction of the capital stock of the Silversmith’s Company from $12,000,000 to $100,000 has been filed with the Secretary of State.

The amount of the capital which had been paid in was only $8,500, and the company are without debt or liability. The company had thirteen directors and reduced the number to three.

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THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
March 24, 1897
pg 10

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No One Appears to Push the Silversmiths’ Company's Bill.

Albany, N. Y., March 19. — There was to have been a hearing on the bill for the return of the monney paid by the Silversmiths’ Company into the State Treasury for incorporating, before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but no one appeared on the bill, and it is in a fair way of being tied up altogether if the promoters of the measure do not make a request for another hearing in the near future.

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THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
March 31, 1897
pg 14

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Hearing on the Bill of the Silversmiths’ Company.

Albany, N. Y., March 26. — There was a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Wednesday, on the Silversmiths’ Company enabling act. Louis Marshall, who represented the directors of the company, was the only person who appeared.

Mr. Marshall explained that the company were organized in 1893, with a capital of $12,000,000, for the purpose of manufacturing articles of silver and gold. The company had this immense capital in order that they might acquire certain property in the shape of a number of silverware manufacturing concerns. The company paid for the right of incorporating 1/8 of 1 per cent, of the capital stock, or about $15,000. After paying tills $15,000 the company were unable to acquire the property they desired and therefore never did a stroke of business. Later the capital stock was reduced to $100,000, the directors thinking that the company would be a success as sellers and not as manufacturers. But even in this State the company did not do any business.

Mr. Marshall said that he thought the State should give the company a chance to appear before the Board of Claims and press Mr. Marshall said that he thought the State should give the company a chance to appear before the Board of Claims and press the claim for the return of the incorporation tax. Senator Krum did not seem to agree with Mr. Marshall said that it was not the fault of the State that the company did not do business and therefore the company should not expect back the incorporation tax.

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THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
April 14, 1897
pg 13

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The Silversmiths' Company’s Bill in a Comatose State

Albany, N. Y., April 9. — There is little doubt but that the Silversmiths’ Company Enabling act is dead. When bills of such character, conferring jurisdiction on the Board of Claims, to hear certain claims against the State, go to a committee they are usually acted upon at once, or are never seen again. As the Silversmiths’ Company's bill has now been in the Senate Judiciary Committee for six weeks, there is every reason to believe that it is dead.

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THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
Nov. 2, 1898
pg 25

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Incorporation of the Silversmiths' Company.

The Silversmiths’ Company have been incorporated in New Jersey, with a capital of $2,000. The principal office is at 250 Washington St., Jersey City, N. J., and the concern is to engage in manufacturing of all kinds, mining of all kinds, transportation, storage, building, trading, etc. Edward Holbrook, Stamford, Conn.; George H. Robinson, New York city, and William N. La Cato, Hutton Park, West Orange, N. J., are the incorporators.

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posted 05-30-2017 07:38 PM            

THE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR
June 30, 1920
pg 93

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Gorham Silver Concern Reorganized
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Gorham Mfg. Co. Becomes Holding Company of Various Subsidiary Silver
Concerns and New Officers Are Elected

Providence, R. I., June 26.— The reorganization of the Gorham Mfg. Co. and the various co-ordinate silversmithing corporations that are associated with it as subsidiaries of The Silversmiths Co., persistent rumors of which have been current in business and financial circles here since the first of the year, assumed definite form this week through the announcement issued from the Elmwood offices of the Gorham Mfg. Co., Wednesday afternoon, following the regular meeting of the board of directors.

As a preliminary step to the reorganization several important changes in the personnel of the officers and directors of the Gorham Mfg. Co. were contained in Wednesday's announcement. When the entire plan has been put into operation it will include the eventual elimination of the Silversmiths Co., which for several years has been the holding corporation of the several concerns that are embraced in that combination and which have been controlled by it. The plan also provides in place of the Silversmith Co. the taking over of all of these manufacturing plants by the Gorham Mfg. Co.. thus making the Providence corporation the "parent or holding company."

It is explained in the announcement that all of the companies in the combination, without exception, have just completed the most prosperous year of normal business in their history, and that the outlook for the future was never more promising.

The purpose of the plan of reorganization is to put the business of the Gorham Mfg. Co. and the affiliated companies upon a more efficient and economical production basis and at the same time to consolidate the financing of the separate corporations in such a manner as to insure stability and provide for necessary expansion, due to the constant growth of the business of all of these allied interests. Greater manufacturing efficiency is to be achieved by eliminating duplication of plant and products. Each subsidiary corporation will, however, maintain its present entity as a selling organization under the direction of its own officers.

Plans for the additional financing of the reorganized Gorham companies are being worked out by the committee on reorganization and finance. The program recommended by this committee at the meeting of the directors on Wednesday, contemplates the strengthening of the whole financial structure. The accounting systems of the various affiliated companies are being coordinated under the direction of Hawkins & Sells. Recent appraisals of the companies' New York city real estate holdings place their present actual values at more than double the figures at which they are carried on the books. A complete appraisal of all the companies' real estate, plants, equipment and other properties is under way and is expected to show similar excess of values over the book figures in many instances.

At the meeting of the Board of Directors on Wednesday, John S. Holbrook, who succeeded his father, the late Edward Holbrook, as president of the Gorham Mfg. Co., resigned that position to become chairman of the Board of Directors, a new position that has been created under the plan of reorganization, while Henry A. Macfarland has been elected as president. Alfred K. Potter, of this city, has also resigned as vice-president and director to take effect October 1, 1920. Mr. Holbrook will continue as president of the Gorham Co. of New York and of the Silversmiths Co. The companies that will be affected by these changes are, in addition to the Silversmiths Co. and the Gorham Mfg. Co., the following concerns: The Gorham Co. of New York; the Mount Vernon Co. Silversmiths, Inc., Mount Vernon, N. Y.; the William B. Durgin Co. of Concord, N. H..; the Whiting Mfg. Co. of Bridgeport, Conn., and the William B. Kerr Co., of Newark, N. J.

The new office of chairman of the Board of Directors was created for the purpose of relieving Mr. Holbrook of the executive details involved in the direction of the company's manufacturing and selling operations, and leaving him free to devote his attention to the broader field of the corporation's finances and the shaping of its policies.

H. A. Macfarland, who succeeds Mr. Holbrook as president of the Gorham Mfg. Co., it was announced, will take the entire direction of the manufacturing and selling departments of the company's business. He was, for several years, president of the Mount Vernon Co. Silversmiths, Inc., of Mount Vernon. N. Y., one of the corporations associated with the Gorham Mfg. Co. in The Silversmiths Co. of New York. Mr. Macfarland has built up the Mount Vernon Co. in a very brief time into a rapidly growing and very prosperous business. As vice-president in charge of production of the Silversmiths Co., the holding corporation in which the Gorham companies and several other silver manufacturing companies are affiliated, his success has been such as to warrant his promotion to the presidency of the Gorham Mfg. Co. He is a director in that corporation as well as in the Gorham Co., the New York selling organization, and is president of the Sterling Silverware Manufacturers' Association.

The resignation of Alfred K. Potter as vice-president and director was accepted by the board of directors, to take effect Oct. 1, 1920. Mr. Potter, who became treasurer of the Gorham Mfg. Co. in 1918, was promoted the following year to the vice-presidency of that corporation and of the Gorham Co. of New York, in both of which he was a director, as well as of the Silversmiths Co. Mr. Potter has been in charge of production in the Gorham Mfg. Co.'s plants.

At the meeting of the directors of the Gorham Mfg. Co. on Wednesday, as well as that of the Silversmiths Co., held there after, the report of the committee on re organization and finance of the latter corporation was received and adopted. This committee consisted of FYank W. Matteson, chairman: John S. Holbrook, William A. Viall, Herbert J. Wells and James S. Utley, and recommended a plan which will eventually eliminate the Silversmiths Co. and make the Gorham Mfg. Co. the "parent" or holding company for the Gorham Co., the Mount Vernon Co. Silversmiths, Inc., the William B. Durgin Co., of Concord, .V. H.; the Whiting Mfg. Co., of Bridge port, Conn., and the William B. Kerr Co., of Newark, N. J., all of which are now subsidiaries of the Silversmiths Co.

All but the Gorham Co. manufacture in their own plants and sell through their own organizations special non-competitive lines of sterling and plated silver, bronze and other products. The Gorham Co. is the New York retail selling corporation, operating two stores in Manhattan, through which the products of all these companies are marketed locally.

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posted 05-30-2017 11:31 PM            

• Silversmiths' Company