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Lawrence
Jeffrey Estate Jewelers is named for our
founder Jeff Russak, or Lawrence Jeffrey Russack
III, as he was born. To honor his father and
grandfather we chose to use the family name.
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Bradford House Antiques: The name
of our parent company and our other store was
chosen to honor Bill and Harriet Kaschube. They
were Sandra and Mark’s parents, as well as
Jeff’s good friends. During our formative years
we were helped and encouraged at every turn by
these two dedicated collectors. Their home was
our sanctuary and, for many years, our base of
operations when buying in the American Midwest.
They resided in Bradford, PA in a magnificent
house filled with collections of everything from
Chinese porcelains and enamels, strait razors,
fossils, mineral core samples, books, stamps,
miniature vases, to Art Glass. Hence our name
-- Bradford House Antiques.
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Sandra Russak: Sandra has been an
antiques dealer since 1989 and an avid
collector all her life. The daughter of
archeologists, she comes by her passion for
preserving and researching the past naturally.
Her special interests are jewelry of the Arts
and Crafts and Art Nouveau periods and
paintings; she contributes to the selection of
pieces for the shop in these areas as well as
collecting jewelry herself. She also decorates
our famous holiday windows with items from her
own extensive collection. Educated at a leading
music conservatory, she is a superb musician.
Sandra is an avid cook who reads cookbooks like
other folks read novels. She also has a keen
interest in religious philosophy and women’s
roles in historic and modern religion. Sandra is
Mark’s sister and Jeff’s wife. She and Jeff
started Bradford House Antiques 15 years ago. |
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Jeff Russak: Jeff has been
involved in antiques all his life. A third
generation dealer, he gained his appreciation
for antiques at his grandmother’s knee, (she had
a huge bookstore and three antique shops as well
as her own auctioneer). His earliest memories
are of sitting in her shop display windows as a
toddler as if it was a playpen. As a child his
favorite school vacations were spent exploring
the stuff stored in her 15 room Victorian home.
“It was like Aladdin’s cave! I remember one
closet was filled with porcelain and the chest
at the end of the main staircase was packed with
silver and small boxes. If I was good we could
unpack a box from the attic after dinner.” She
loved books most of all and at the height of her
career was the largest Antiquarian book dealer
in the country.
Our resident expert on just about everything,
Jeff is especially knowledgeable about jewelry,
gems, silver, and decorative objects. Over the
years he has been a picker, sold in the small
flea markets, and had booths in antique shows of
all sizes, as well as many group shops. Twelve
years ago Sandra and he rented their first shop
in Litchfield, CT. This was the beginning of
Bradford House Antiques, as we know it
today. They decided to specialize in jewelry,
silver, smalls, and decorative objects. Jeff is
a member of the American Society of Jewelry
Historians, The Jewelers Vigilance Committee,
The New York Silver Society numerous other
associations and is in constant demand as a
guest appraiser of jewelry for charity events.
Also an avid musician, Jeff plays several
instruments, collects rabbit figurines, likes to
wear hats and enjoys touring on his BMW
motorcycle. Jeff and Sandra are married. Jeff is
the senior member of Bradford House Antiques,
LLC.
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Jeff Russak’s early jewelry and Antique
experiences:
Jeff’s father was a unique individual who had a
strong love of jewelry. One of Jeff’s fondest
memories was going to Amsterdam with his father
at age four to buy Mom the promised engagement
ring (they were too poor to afford one when
first married). Living at that time in Germany,
(Dad was a captain in the army), Jeff remembers
riding along the tops of verdant dikes past huge
bundles of bright tulips in his father’s Morgan,
(an open top sports car). The diamond merchants
were very patient with the young child’s
curiosity about the fantastic gems. It left a
deep impression -- the darkness of the diamond
houses with brilliant shafts of light
surrounding the cutter’s workbenches. They were
serious silent places where it seemed to a child
that the stern faced men were magically creating
beauty from the bright light itself. Later, in
America, Jeff’s father took him to Jose Grant, a
wonderful jeweler in Stamford, Connecticut.
There at nine he had his first taste of what the
jeweler’s art was all about. It was an
astonishing place where there was nothing
ready-made to buy. You had to talk to the
jewelers and describe what you wanted, then pick
the gemstones you wanted to use. A few weeks
later, you would go and look at what they had
done (often a couple of versions if they were
intrigued by your project). Jeff’s father’s
taste for originality and quality formed an
approach to jewelry in Jeff’s mind that would
become the cornerstone for our buying
methodology. |
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Mark Kaschube:
After many years of working in hospital
emergency rooms he wanted a change. Little did
he know just how different the antiques world
would be! “I don’t think anyone has to
constantly learn as many new skills as do
antique dealers.” The son of archeologists, he
comes by his passion for preserving and
researching the past naturally. With a
consummate skill for learning he became our
expert in early American Coin silver and
American and English sterling. He always claims
to know very little about jewelry but his “very
little” is more than most specialists. He is
also very knowledgeable in the area of glass and
porcelain. Recently married, Mark is finding his
skills at shop renovation very much in demand by
his wife for use in their beautiful new
(antique) home. Mark and his wife collect Bimini
and Venetian glass and pairs of large art glass
goblets. Mark is a WW2 history buff, a science
fiction fan and an avid fisherman. |
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Penny Hurley: Penny joined us
years ago just as we were opening in our
then new location. A devotee of jewelry and a
collector of portraits of women as well as
antiques of every kind for her home, Penny lends
her unique taste to the selection process of our
pieces. Previously she was the number two person
at a national arts organization specializing in
education and which presents the Litchfield Jazz
Festival.
She does much of our photography
herself and is responsible for the day-to-day
operation of this web site. She is a jazz
aficionado and loves vintage automobiles. |
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Patricia Polk: Patti is a good
friend who has recently joined our team. The
daughter of a NYC jewelry manufacturer, she
comes by her exquisitely good taste naturally
(her mother was at one time Chanel’s top sales
associate world-wide working in the New York
flagship store). Patti is an expert in matching
the right piece with the right person. Her
lifelong career required her to travel the world
constantly and everywhere she went she visited
antique shops and the finest jewelers. We are
honored that she wished to be associated with
us. Patti also continues to operate her own
costume jewelry manufacturing business. |
