by Paul R. Spitzzeri
For people of a certain age, it is often still well-remembered within this mists of memory that one of the important rituals of the Christmas holiday season was the excitement of poring through store catalogs, such as those issued by once-mighty retailers like Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penney and Sears. There are still inserts in those newspapers that are still with us, but there is a vast difference between one and the other.
The newest “Evolution of Christmas” post, featuring holiday-related artifacts from the Homestead’s collection, highlights a publication of far more modest proportions and from a store of much lesser known recognition, but is still an interesting representation of how the holiday was sold during the 1920s. Brock and Company was a prominent jewelry store in downtown Los Angeles for many years and its Treasures occupies a space between a catalog and a magazine.
It shows a variety of products sold by the firm, but doesn’t provide prices except for one page, while it also goes into some great detail about the history of the Christmas holiday, the “heritage of American silver,” and the Regent diamond. With a striking cover of a world map showing a galleon and little phrases related to gems, as well as an inset of reindeer across the sky and a Christmas tree and present, it is also notable with the latter and product designs in the publication how dominant Art Deco stylings were at the time.
The firm’s founder was George Alexander Brock, born in Montreal, Canada in 1859. Four census listings provide different dates, ranging from 1864 to 1879 for his migration over the border to the United States. He lived and worked for some years at Fargo, North Dakota, where he became a citizen in 1888 and then was at Joliet, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. A few years after marrying and the birth of a son, Brock brought his family to Los Angeles in 1902, as another major boom hit the city and region.
In late October 1903, Brock and partner George E. Feagans (of whom we’ll discuss in a future post because Laura González Temple was a regular customer) opened a gold and silversmith shop at the corner of Broadway and 4th Street. Eight years later, the partnership was dissolved and both set up their separate jewelry houses, with Brock and Company staying in the building , on the west side of Broadway between 4th and 5th, and merging with the Whitley Jewelry Company. In 1923, Brock merged with the firm of S[imon] Nordlinger and Company, which took over a preceding jewelry and watch business on Commercial Street next to Main Street in the Angel City in 1870 during the first boom in Los Angeles.
Just prior to this, the business was relocated to 515 W. 7th, between Olive and Grand, in a four-story structure, partly seen in the publication, that is not only extant, but retains much of its original attractive architectural features, including abundant bas relief sculpting and ebullient scrolling and other details at what looks like a parapet at the roof edge. There was a main floor showroom that was soon joined by one on the second level, while the top floors were dedicated to jewelry reconstruction, watch repair and other functions.
Brock and Company celebrated its silver (that is, 25th) anniversary in late October 1928, just before this edition of Treasures was published, and the firm held a week-long silver exhibition with what it claimed was the largest collection of its kind in the western United States. With that landmark event past, the company looked toward the holiday season and the production of the publication. On the first page is a list of upcoming culture events, all related to “serious” or classical music excepting the Tournament of Roses and Rose Bowl football game, some trivia about American presidents, and two items related to the holiday season.
One noted that Joel Poinsett, a former member of Congress from South Carolina and future Secretary of War [Defense], served as the minister to México and, on his return to the United States, brought a flower known as the “painted leaf” or “flame plant,” but which was recast in his honor as the poinsettia, described as “our Christmas flower.” The other item concerned the fact that “the happy holidays are here” and, while, there are other holidays important “for sentimental or patriotic reasons,” none “brings such a sense of happiness and contentment and well-being as the Christmas holidays.”
While mentioning the importance of family reunions and memories of past holidays, Brock and Company was sure to mention that “we thrill, in anticipation, to the joys of gift-giving, and of receiving. Still, it also quoted liberally from Charles Dickens, who mentioned the bringing together of families “dispersed and scattered far and wide, in the restless struggle for life,” and who then rhapsodized “happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home.”
A feature titled “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Let Nothing You Dismay,” the opening lines to the eternal holiday carol, began by quoting Charles Dudley Warner, best known for his work as an editor for Harper’s Magazine and several books, but also a friend of Mark Twain and who came up with a couple of well-known sayings, including “Politics makes such strange bedfellows” and “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” the latter often misattributed to Twain who used it a good deal in his speeches. Warner, however, also wrote Our Italy, published in 1890 and written about his travels in southern California and crossed swords (pens) with Yda Addis, as mentioned in this blog before.
Warner’s statement cited in Treasures included the observation, from an 1872 work, that illustrated both cynicism and optimism about the holidays:
The fire on the hearth has almost gone out; the hearth has gone out; the family has lost its center; age ceases to be respected; sex is only distinguished by the difference between millinery bills and tailors’ bills . . . And then, as the clock struck eleven, we each produced from the place where we had hidden them, the modest Christmas gifts we had prepared for each other, and what surprise there was! “Just the thing I needed.” And, “It’s perfectly lovely.” And, “You shouldn’t have done it.” And so, when the great iron tongue of the city bell swept over the snow the twelve strokes that announced Christmas Day, if there was anywhere a happier home than ours, I am glad of it.
The article went to note that the holiday possessed the rare power to provide contentment and happiness at any period through “a mystic quality.” With respect to its history, it was stated that there were celebrations in 4th century A.D. Rome (that is, the Saturnalia) and that St. Augustine introduced the holiday to England the following century, though what this really was involved the conversion of thousands to Christianity on Christmas Day.
Other early elements of the holiday were mentioned in 9th century Germany and in Norway the following century, along with the 6 January Epiphany and the Christmas of the orthodox Christian sects and the kalends of the New Year. With respect to the latter, it was recorded that decorating with greens and lights and the exchange of presents was described by the 4th century A.D. sophist teacher Libanius, who wrote of gift-giving and abundant feasts reflecting that “people are no only generous toward themselves but also toward their fellow men.” In fact, until the mid 19th-century or so, Americans were far more likely to celebrate at New Year’s Day than Christmas.
Also mentioned were the German origins of the modern Santa Claus, though the St. Nicholas feast day is earlier in December and the account observed that “the English-speaking world at large has adopted him as the Christmas visitant, while in Germany, the Christ-Child himself appears on Christmas Eve in the form of little children.” In Russia, there was Kolyada, a woman in a white robe, as a sort of analog to Santa, though that name, as Koliada also applies to a Slavic holiday from before Christian times. Other holiday elements from the piece concern St. Procula, said to have been the wife of Pontius Pilate, and La Befana, an Italian witch who distributed gifts on the eve of the Epiphany.
Christmas trees, the article commented, first appeared in Germany in 1605, as an anonymous account recorded, though while it was said in the piece that it was not popularized until 1840 when Queen Victoria and her consort and husband Prince Albert had one, it has otherwise been stated that Queen Charlotte, German wife of King George III, introduced a tree four decades prior. The article added that greens were used in London for holiday decorating long prior, tracing this back to the Kalends observances of pre-Christian Rome and then concluded with,
Whatever its origin, and however its celebration may vary, Christmas is the one feast in which the Christian world, with one single reception [exception? the orthodox churches?] unites today. And, whatever the state of the world, whether in peace or at war, in good fortune or ill, Christmas brings a cessation of strife, a spirit of unity and brotherhood, a common rejoicing and a hopefulness that have made this day the most hallowed of the year.
As for Brock and Company’s offerings, they included Rookwood china, Dutch silver, and crystal pieces for home décor and use; jade, diamond, emerald, sapphire jewelry in the more elevated class of products. A brief history of American silver noted that “in no other place has silvercraft reached the high artistry and universal excellence that it has attained today at the hands of modern American silversmiths.” A heritage reached back to the golden age of France’s Sun King, Louis XIV, though persecution of the dissident Huguenots after 1685 meant that there was an exodus of silversmiths to other European countries as well as to America.
One of these was Apollos Rivoire, born in France in 1702 and who migrated to Boston at 13 and, after an apprenticeship, worked in gold and silver-smithing. He changed his name to Paul Revere and his namesake son became the famous Revolutionary War hero in addition to carrying on the family trade. Many other early American silversmiths were mentioned, as was the importance of guilds in retaining the standards of craft and the propensity for the trade to passed down through family lines, including the keeping of traditional handwork in the face of the growth of mechanical processes. The piece ended with the celebration of those whose “loving labors are silver pieces that will live in future centuries to be cherished” like ancient works.
For holiday gifts, the publication suggested, for men, a platinum ring with a diamond inset and other rings with jade, signets, and lapis lazuli, reptilian skin wallets, cigarette cases, cufflinks and a tank-style sports watch that self-wound when its case was opened and closed. For women, bracelets, necklaces, rings, compacts, watches, an enamel clock, a dressing table set, brocaded purses, a travel toilet set, a desk set in green morocco leather, and an enamel manicure set were featured. A pronounced Art Deco styling predominates for both, especially for the dresser set.
A “page of gifts for almost everyone” includes an ice pail, a jade-ornamented bridge set, lighters, fragrance bottles, stamps, photo lockets, and Rookwood bud vases, flower bowls and more were featured. The rear cover features a striking collarette diamond necklace, with geometric shapes reflecting that Art Deco aesthetic and considered “smartly sophisticated, yet in perfect taste. The inside front cover was an acknowledgment of Brock and Company’s silver anniversary, its appreciation of the company’s customers and its “desire to re-dedicate this institution to all those ideals with which this firm was founded.” This included integrity, “fidelity to that ancient guild spirit,” responsibility and sincerity “in merchandise, in service, and in those intangibles that add so much to every transaction.”
A decade after this issue of Treasures was published, George A. Brock died. He was lauded for his community and public service, including as a director and vice-president of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; chair of the city’s Parks and Boulevards and Industrial commissions; vice-president of the McKinley School for Boys, chair of the budget committee of the Community Chest charitable organization; director of the Better Business Bureau and the Downtown Businessmen’s Association; and president of the National Retail Jewelers Association.
Under the management of his son, Brock and Company continued in business, still in its 7th Street location, until early February 1974 and the building became, later that year, the home of Clifton’s Silver Spoon Cafeteria, one of several branches of the popular chain. One can still see the Brock name on the marquee at the entrance to what has continued to be a ground-floor restaurant, with the Seven Grand bar on the second floor.
We’ll return soon with another “Evolution of Christmas” post on the selling of the holiday featuring a Los Angeles business, so check back for that.