You might know (or it might surprise you to know) that Hands Jewelers is 171 years old. Boasting five generations of Hands family ownership, one would think we had a rich archive of objects and photographs, but surprisingly little was kept over the years. The few photographs of Hands and related vintage memorabilia dating from the 20th century back to the later 1800s were destroyed several decades ago in a building fire that claimed our second-floor office on Dubuque St. where the wonderful Prairie Lights Bookstore is today.
After the fire, many kind and generous people brought us their old jewelry boxes, gold rimmed glasses in their original leather-clad cases stamped John Hands and Son, Jewelers and Opticians (yes, we were also opticians as recently as the 1940s), commemorative plates, wall thermometers with our name printed on them, and the like. These objects came to us from around the country, often with stories of their relatives’ involvement in the life of our store. It was truly astounding how these unsolicited and unrelated acts of kindness randomly occurred and we continue to be touched beyond words as objects and stories that testify to our history gradually build up again.
Without boring you with the details, the chain of our ownership began with Oliver Startsman (not related) who started the original jewelry store in his new building at 109 E. Washington St in downtown Iowa City in 1853. It was later merged with John Hands, who subsequently involved his youngest son, Harold Hands (known as “Babe” – there’s a story there). Then it was passed on to Babe’s adopted son William Nusser Sr., followed by Bill’s son, William Nusser Jr., and today (younger) Bill’s son, Charlie Nusser continues the legacy.
Bill remembers well his grandfather, Babe Hands, and spent many hours watching Babe make gold jewelry from a bar or sheet of gold, and hand-engrave beautiful monograms or floral and foliate designs on custom wedding bands, signets, charms and lockets. Babe was an excellent and accomplished stone setter as well, having been meticulously trained by his father, John, in Victorian era jewelrymaking, which employed a wide variety of techniques rarely practiced among bench jewelers today. Babe was a gentle giant who didn’t talk much, so teenaged Bill didn’t think to ask a lot about John Hands and the family that preceded him in England. You see, even though we claim five generations of family ownership, the Hands family jewelry business goes back many generations before. This part of our story is a gray area for us and John Hands’ birth certificate was the only surviving artifact we had of the Hands family life in England.
Remarkably, Charlie located and was able to acquire a 19th century J. Hands English pocket watch several years ago, which was a revelation to us all, and a stunning addition to our developing historical collection (by the way, the J. is for Joseph, John’s father).
Recently, while surfing our favorite sites on social media, we came across a wonderful online jewelry company called ERAGEM (@eragem, eragem.com), specializing in antique, vintage and previously owned jewelry and engagement rings. Many of the photographs and reels of their offerings exhibit rings and jewelry set into a marvelously curated collection of vintage jewelry boxes from the US and across the ocean, all of which are in good to very good condition. While perusing, we noticed a partial insignia reading “J. Ha” in the printed logo in inside top of the handsome, hinged leather box, the rest of which was obscured – after all, the focus was on the ring, not the box! Could it be a J. Hands box, we wondered?
(This and subsequent photos are screen shots from @eragems reels)
The brown, slightly worn box appeared in several more videos of different rings, still partially blocked, so it was hard to tell if this was “one of ours”. We came across the same box in a video, only this time we could only see the “nds”, which strengthened our hopes, but wasn’t yet conclusive.
Finally, we found a video in which the entire name was clearer. It was indeed J. Hands! The address was in Leicester, England, near Coventry, where the Joseph Hands family was known to live. It all checked out!
Charlie contacted ERAGEM and they loved the whole story of our roots, longevity and quest for evidence of our pre-American history, and happily offered the box to us, for which we are extremely grateful. Soon it will join our archival collection as possibly the oldest item in the Hands Jewelers ever-growing trove.
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