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Jewelry News & Events News FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 19, 2010
"Meet Nicole Discount" good from 2/20/10 through 2/27/10 only. ################### FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2009 CONTACT: AGS Education Dept. WHITEHALL JEWELER AWARDED REGISTERED JEWELER TITLE LAS VEGAS) Thomas H. Wiggins, of Bixler's Jewelers, was awarded the title of Registered Jeweler of the American Gem Society. By earning this prestigious title, Thomas has demonstrated knowledge and experience in the jewelry industry. Mark Moeller, AGS president, said, "I want to congratulate Thomas for achieving a level of skill reached by only some 1,400 jewelers throughout the United States and Canada. They have qualified as a Registered Jeweler by having a personal desire to increase their knowledge of gemology and through their AGS member store subscribing to ethical business principles set down by the Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau, and the Society's own code of standards." The American Gem Society is an association of professional jewelers dedicated to proven ethics, knowledge, and consumer protection. Members are held to high ethical standards in the industry and are recertified annually to maintain their AGS titles. For more information regarding the American Gem Society, please call 866.805.6500 or visit the AGS website at www.americangemsociety.com. ################### FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 5, 2008 America's Oldest Jewelers Closing Landmark Location Easton, PA - Mark Maurer, President & Owner, and CEO Joyce Mitman Welken, have announced that Bixler's Jewelers rich history in Easton, Pennsylvania is coming to an end this Holiday season. America's oldest retail jeweler will host an inventory clearance event beginning November 19th at its historic downtown location at 24 Centre Square. The doors will close for good sometime in early 2009. "The luxury jewelry business has undergone big changes in the last ten years," Maurer explains. "These changes, coupled with the current economic downturn, have made it too difficult to continue operating in our downtown Easton location." Bixler's Jewelers will continue to serve its customers from its remaining location at 1457 MacArthur Road in Whitehall. The company is also pursuing options to open a new store along the Route 33 corridor. They were negotiating to be a part of The Summit town center project off Route 33 and Freemansburg Ave. before developers of that project pulled out. Almost as Old as America Itself It was 1785 when Revolutionary War veteran Christian Bixler III opened a small jewelry and clock-making shop at the intersection of Northampton and Bank Streets in downtown Easton, Pennsylvania. Benjamin Franklin had just introduced the world to bifocals and George Washington was still four years from becoming the first President of the United States. Over the next 140 years, Bixler's relocated two times in downtown Easton before settling into its current Centre Square location in 1925. The store still displays two of the 465 grandfather clocks built by Bixler between 1785- 1812. Visitors can also view original clock designs and customer lists on a 1785 ledger protected inside one of the 80-year old jewelry cases. America's Oldest Jewelers Closing Landmark Location As great-great-great granddaughter of Christian Bixler III, the significance of the Easton store closing is not lost on CEO Joyce Mitman Welken. "We feel like this is the toughest decision the Bixler family has ever had to make in our 223-year history in Easton. We would like to thank the community, as well as all our loyal customers and friends, for their support and friendship over the years. And we can only hope that the store closing event will reward that friendship and loyalty in some small way. It will most certainly be the biggest sale in the history of Bixler's Jewelers." ################### The "B" Word, Redux Amidst a spiraling downturn, price pressures and commoditization, Here are their tales... "I think it may well have been the most breathtaking diamond I've held," Mark Maurer says of a 4.13ct. I-VS2 cushion from Cut by Tolkowsky he recently sold. "I could tell you all day about the polish, the symmetry, the balance between color and white light, but it wouldn't do it justice. This diamond looked like it was being illuminated by some inner light. Just pure magic." We sit amidst a wealth of beautiful diamonds in his VanScoy, Maurer & Bash Diamond Jewelers, at the front of an opulent 2000-sq.ft. showroom that seems anomalous in this mall center outside Lancaster, PA. Even against a backdrop of brands like David Yurman, John Hardy, Ritani, Roberto Coin, etc.-names that tend to identify a store-it's the diamonds that pop out here. Maurer is a man who just happens to love adamas: The initial bulk of his 35 years in retail were given to his VanScoy Diamond Mine, a Lancaster boutique devoted strictly to diamonds (a 2004 merger with local colleague Bill Bash resulted in this door), and his Avalon Diamond Jewelers of Whitehall, PA. He's also a great believer in cut. A recently acquired third store, Bixler's of Easton, PA, which happens to be America's oldest jeweler (est. in 1785), is a prominent AGS door. Maurer is not a believer, however, in the branded diamond. "Everyone's looking for the David Yurman of diamonds," he says. "I don't believe there is one. I don't know if I can say for a certainty that the diamond is a commodity-but it certainly is becoming one, thanks to the Internet." Diamond cases here-outside of a few designer cases and six feet recently devoted to Cut by Tolkowsky-are individuated by private-label themes, and by the Fischler Diamond Company name. Maurer has been traveling to Antwerp-and sourcing largely from that family-for 28 years, and he'll be the first to tell you that most of his private-label stones are Fischler product. So why the Cut by Tolkowsky case? And why a cushion-from a cutter like Jean Paul Tolkowsky, who's synonymous with ideal cuts? A man whose factories, in Thailand and now in Botswana, are called H&A Cutting Works, and whose sightholder company, Exelco, is the leading hearts & arrows seller in Japan? "I could say that 4.13ct. cushion," says Maurer. "But it was really the sale of that diamond that sold me." Reprinted from August 2007 - issue of Modern Jeweler Magazine |
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