TAMAS  L’ORANT  TL: 030

Geo. C. Shreve & Co San Francisco – Patek Philippe No: 70662

1885-1890

Shreve & Co  PP: 70662

The company’s precursor,  The Shreve Jewelry Company, was established by Rodman’s father and uncle, George and Samuel Shreve, who had moved to San Francisco from  New York city George learned goldsmithing   from his older half-brother, Benjamin.

By the 1880s, The Shreve Jewelry Company was considered among the finest silversmiths in the United States, selling high quality timepieces, gold, and silver jewelry, aside from diamonds and precious stones.The store, which had opened at Montgomery and Clay, soon moved to Market Street.

Just a month before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Shreve & Co. opened its new eleven-story building at Post and Grant. Built with the latest engineering technologies of its time, the Shreve & Co. building was one of a few San Francisco buildings that survived the April 18 earthquake.During the fire, silver and jewels were rushed into the fireproof vault by the staff where most of it remained unharmed, however, 3 weeks would pass before the safe was cool enough to open.With its building rendered unusable, the company opened shop in Oakland, where it stayed for two years. The company’s first flatware products and illustrated catalogs were created at tis time.

Shreve & Co the prestigious San Francisco retailer, California’s oldest jewelry retailer who before the turn of the century became only the second jeweler in the United States to represent Patek Philippe in 1887. As long as the highest-grade of Swiss timepieces have been provided to the United States, Shreve & Co. has been at the fortefront.

Throughout the 20th century, Shreve & Co. has been celebrated around the globe for innovative designs and impeccable craftsmanship. Special commissions have included…a 14k white gold replica of the Statue of Liberty; gifts for delegates to the newly founded United Nations in 1945; and the gift presented to Queen Elizabeth II by the State of California upon her coronation in 1953.

Shreve & Co. has also been privileged to house numerous special exhibitions including the Crown of the Andes, the 726 carat Yonkers Diamond, a collection of jewels once owned by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great; the 104 carat Chrysanthemum Diamond, and the treasures of the Atocha, a Spanish galleon that sank off the coast of Florida in 1622.