ANTIQUE ART NOUVEAU SIMMONS GOLD FILLED ORNATE CHATELAINE OR WATCH PIN

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ANTIQUE ART NOUVEAU SIMMONS GOLD FILLED ORNATE CHATELAINE OR WATCH PIN:
$15.00

- R. F. Simmons Company Jewelry

Simmons Art Nouveau Watch Pin. This is a gorgeous piece with a very flowing Nouveau design. There is a hook on the back for the watch and an older spring type clasp. The pin measures 7/8\" in diameter. Very good condition. --- Marked Simmons on the back hook and also RFS Co on the spring clasp.

R.F. Simmons Company, Attleboro, MA. \"Founded in 1873 by Robert Fitz Simmons, a chaser who conducted a small shop. Simmons struck up a friendship with Joseph Lyman Sweet who used to drive grain from the Sweet farm in West Mansfield to Attleboro\'s town sales near Simmons\' shop. Simmons would tease Sweet about being a \"rube\" and from this banter grew a warm frienship which led simmons to invite the younger man to learn the jewelry business.\"
\"In 1875 Sweet, Simmons and Edgar L. Hixon formed a partnership each investing $2,500 in the new business. In 1887 the organization had grown from 8 or 10 employees to more than 200 with offices in New York and Agents in Rio de Janiero, Bueinos Aires, Montevideo, Berlin, Barcelona and Sydney. Simmons\' best known product was it\'s watch chains but other items were soon added to its line included chatelaine pins, eye glass chains, fobs and bracelets. It was around Simmons\' 40th anniversary that it laid claim to numerous \"firsts\" in the industry, among them: First house to issue a chain catalogue - 1881; first to stamp goods with the manufacturer\'s initials for identification; first to adopt the definite and responsible guarantee of satisfaction to the wearer - 1880s; first to use a safety fastener in connection with chains and fobs in the early 1890s; first to produce a practical lock bracelet - the Marlow in 1899, etc. etc. (See Dorothy T. Rainwater\'s \"American Jewelry Manufacturer\'s\" for more info on Simmons.) R.F. Simmons Company was still active in 1952. Other simmons marks used:R.F.S. & Co., R.F.S. Co., and Simmons\'