posted 03-28-2008 06:43 PM            

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Leonore B. Doskow of Croton-on-Hudson, NY died suddenly at the age of 97. Born in Philadelphia to Leo and Hannah Bernheimer, graduated from Bryn Matwr College and became a silversmith. Married David M. Doskow and moved to New York City. They joined in business under the name Leonore Doskow, Inc. She worked until the age of 75 and then went on to do volunteer work and paint. She is survived by her brother Walter Bernheimer and three children Charles S. Doskow of Claremont, CA., Ann D. Seligsohn and David W. Doskow and nine grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Internment private. Contributions in her memory may be made to Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA or Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. White Plains, NY 10605.

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DOSKOW, LEONORE B.
2008-03-27

Leonore B. Doskow, of Finney Farm, Croton-on-Hudson, NY, a silversmith and amateur painter, died suddenly at 97 years of age on March 25, 2008. Born October 20, 1910 in Philadelphia to Leo and Hannah Bernheimer, she graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1932 and opened a studio to develop her hobby of silversmithing into her business and lifelong passion. After marrying David M. Doskow in 1934, she moved her studio to New York City and later to Montrose, NY, where she manufactured monogrammed and other silver articles of her own design and, together with her husband, built a nationwide business under the name Leonore Doskow, Inc. After retiring from the business at age 75, she perfected her skill in painting and her work was exhibited at Westchester County Center in 2007. She also volunteered at the Westchester County Archives and the Senior Corps of Retired Executives [SCORE]. On Tuesday, March 25, she went to work at the Archives in the morning, then went to lunch and died suddenly and peacefully before she could be served. She is survived by her brother, Walter Bernheimer of Boston; all her three children, Charles S. Doskow of Claremont, CA; Ann D. Seligsohn and David W. Doskow of Cortlandt Manor, NY; and nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Interment private. Contributions in her memory may be made to Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA or Westchester Residential Opportunities, Inc. 470 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY.

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posted 03-28-2008 07:31 PM            

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Six decades of smithery
By: Monica Anke Hahn-Koenig
January 31, 2001

Silver jewelry made by Leonore Doskow 32 appears often on e-bay, an auction site on the World Wide Web. Her pins, necklaces and bracelets are collector's items, and they go quickly.

This amuses Doskow, who can't fathom wanting to collect anything: "At this age I'm trying to get rid of things!"

The popularity of Doskow's work betrays her humble beginnings as a silversmith. She learned the trade at a summer camp in the 1920s and continued it when her parents gave her jewelry tools. "I just found I evidently had a knack for it," Doskow says. "I never intended to make it my life work."

But that is precisely what silversmithing became. She and her husband owned and operated Leonore Doskow, Inc., a jewelry company selling to upscale stores around the country, from 1935 until the 1980s, when her son and his wife took over. It is headquartered in Montrose NY and still produces Doskow's original designs.

Doskow first sold her wares out of her home and then as a Bryn Mawr student; the deans allowed her to make jewelry in the chemistry laboratories during the stock market crash in 1929. Back then, she says, she would lunch in the village of Bryn Mawr: "Fifteen cents would buy you a ham sandwich and a Coke."

In 1932, she won a scholarship to study art history at the Sorbonne for a summer. When she returned, she opened a shop on 17th Street in Center City, Philadelphia, when silver cost $.29 an ounce. (Today it is more than $5 an ounce.) One of her first customers was Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokovski ("Philadelphians were just absolutely crazy about him"), who came to her 7-foot-wide by 14-foot-long studio in response to an advertisement she had mailed to area residents. He ordered a sterling bracelet for $3 and over the next few months commissioned several novelties from her: a gold mirror for Greta Garbo, a copper wastebasket ("it was awful; it tore my stockings"), a ring engraved with the initials M.C., "for whoever he was going with at that time," muses Doskow.

In a few years, she and her husband, David, would find themselves unemployed in New York City, in the midst of the Depression with a baby on the way. She started making things in bulk "a dozen tie clips for example" and David would sell them to gift shops. women did not have careers in those days, we worked as equal partners," says Doskow. "There would have been no business without him. It was touch and go a lot of the time. Sometimes we would say to each other, do you think we should quit and each go get a job? But we kept on." They ran a series of advertisements on December 8, 1941. "Not one single reply," says Doskow. "And in those days, everybody went to war. We had no business." They moved to Westchester County at the suggestion of a friend, where the business eventually flourished. At its peak it employed 75 people, including high school students on co-ops.

Novelties became Doskow's favorite projects. Monograms were her "big thing," and she also enjoyed creating custom pillboxes, napkin rings, money clips and cigarette cases. In 1940 the Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed her sugar bowl and creamer set in an exhibit, Contemporary American Art. In later years her influences came from trade shows and museums; earlier, she "made things as my children were growing up. When they were babies I made baby spoons and baby pins. As they got older I made more sophisticated things. The ideas just came." Her most recent creation, given to friends when they help change her light bulbs, is a small sterling key chain with a miniature silver light bulb attached.

Doskow is mostly retired from silversmithing. She travels, e-mails children and grandchildren, paints and volunteers at SCORE, counseling young entrepreneurs who want to start their own businesses.

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posted 04-01-2008 07:06 PM            

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 08-23-2008).]

posted 02-05-2011 12:44 PM            

A Lot of the Doskow pieces we have seen are smaller, but here is a larger cake knife (approx 9 inches).

posted 02-06-2011 12:07 AM            

Of particular, personal, interest was reading that she was two years behind my mother at Bryn Mawr and wishing there was a way to find out if they knew each other, but alas that is not possible.

posted 02-18-2011 01:57 PM            

"Leonore Doskow was born in Philadelphia and attended its public schools. In her early teens she spent her summers at a girl's camp in the Adirondack Mountains of upper New York State. Here she was introduced to and became fascinated by working in silver. She demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for handling the tools and for design.

One September after her return from camp, her parents were about to embark on a trip to Europe and offered her a choice of gifts. She responded with what they thought a most unusual request: a set of jeweler's tools. But being indulgent parents they accompanied her on a trip to Philadelphia's Sansom Street where she bought files, a saw frame and saws, a mallet and dapping hammer and a torch for soldering. Installed in a second floor bathroom of her parents' large Germantown house Leonore was in business.

And she sold the very first piece she made! A napkin ring.

From the very first she manifested a great skill at monogramming and initialing. All these individual letters and often quite intricate monograms were carefully cut by hand with the jeweler's saw and soldered to whatever piece she was making rings, bracelets and napkin rings mostly. And all the monograms and sketches for these were preserved in her many notebooks.

From Germantown High School Leonore enrolled at Bryn Mawr College where she majored in archeology and the history of art. A work bench was set up in the chemistry lab where she continued to turn out silver pieces for classmates, friends and relatives.

Summers were spent as a crafts counselor at summer camps in Maine. Upon graduation she received a scholarship to the Sorbonne in Paris where she continued her study of the history of art.

Returning to Philadelphia, she opened a studio in the downtown area. It measured thirty feet long by seven feet wide. And she shared it with a graphic artist! An attractive mailing piece brought in increasing business. And one of her first visitors was Leopold Stokowski who came in brandishing her announcement card saying "You were kind enough to send me this." For the next several years he was a frequent visitor.

After a year Leonore moved to New York and set up a workbench in a small apartment that she shared with a friend. One year later she was married and moved to another apartment where she continued to work upon her silver for a private clientele.

One year brought tremendous and traumatic changes. First came the loss of her husband's job. Then the birth of their first son. Here a critical decision was made: to establish the silver business on a wholesale basis, selling to stores rather than individuals. The going was slow at first. The line consisted principally of tie clips, pins, cuff links, match box covers and so forth, all with applied initials or monograms. Stores were leery of dealing with an unknown craftsman and sales at first were few. But one or two stores who bought samples found such instant acceptance by their customers that they were encouraged to continue.

As the family grew there came a series of moves to larger apartments culminating in a brownstone house in Greenwich Village with one large room for manufacturing, polishing wrapping and billing. The first employees were hired: a high school apprentice (who stayed on and off for thirty years) and a professional polisher who at Christmas time worked well into the night.

At this time the outlets wore principally small gift shops. But soon jewelers and even department stores became customers, many of them continuing to this day. This made a major move inevitable — a workshop in a loft in midtown Manhattan. Business thrived, employing as many as a dozen people and the future was rosy indeed when the ax fell. Pearl Harbor! Over night the business evaporated and the supply of silver came to a halt. Eventually a silver quota was established but a three month's supply was less than had been previously used in a week. This supply was most ingeniously stretched by concentrating on small pieces that required small amounts of silver. Since it was necessary to sell these at the highest possible returns they were sold exclusively at retail through mail order magazine ads.

A move for the summer outside the city came at this same time. After a few months of commuting from Westchester County to the loft in New York they resolved to move the business to the country on a permanent basis. At first headquarters was in the attic of the small rented home. But with VJ Day and the relaxation of restrictions larger quarters were needed. An abandoned tavern nearby was first rented and then purchased and the business continued here for some years. About twelve years ago it was moved into the 10,000 square foot modern building it presently occupies.

posted 02-18-2011 05:17 PM            

The first one was registered 23 June 1964 and was for men's and women's jewelry, especially rings, pins, earrings, brooches, pendants, necklaces, bracelets, cufflinks and tie pins.

posted 02-12-2012 01:00 PM            

Here is a piece by Leonore Doskow that I purchased yesterday. What makes it special is that I had never heard of Ms. Doskow until I read about her on these forums and because of that I sought out a piece by her. It is a letter opener dated 1977 (I think because one of the numbers is rubbed). I like it alot and will be on the hunt for a few more items to add. So a big Thank You to all who posted about her!

posted 02-20-2012 11:46 PM            

It's a whimsical baby spoon and it features the LD conjoined mark along with LEONORE DOSKOW INC.

posted 02-25-2013 12:20 PM            

But I guess it could be an e. Or a d or a J:

Mark: