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Lawrence Jeffrey Estate Jewelers
is named to honor Jeff’s father and grandfather.
It is our mission to offer our customers Antique
Jewelry and Estate Jewelry of remarkable
character. It is our responsibility to trade in
an ethical, legal and fair manner. It is our
aspiration to add grace to the world by
presenting Fashion and preserving Style through
Antique Jewelry and Estate Jewelry. As a firm,
we will strive to earn your patronage and
deserve your trust.
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Bradford House Antiques LLC:
is our parent company. Originally we had two
stores side by side. Bradford House Antiques
was our Antique Silver shop. A few years ago we
were able to break through the walls and combine
the locations. The Bradford House name was
chosen to honor Bill and Harriet Kaschube. They
were Sandra’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, straight razors,
fossils, mineral core samples, books, stamps,
and 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 Arts and Crafts and
Art Nouveau jewelry and paintings; she
contributes to the selection of Antique Jewelry
for the shop. She also decorates our famous
holiday windows with items from her own
extensive collection. Sandra is a superb
musician and 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.
She and Jeff started Bradford House Antiques 20
years ago. |
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Jeff Russak:
Jeff’s
main field of expertise is Antique and 20th
Century Jewelry. He is also knowledgeable about
gemstones, silver, and decorative objects.
Sandra and he started their antique business in
the small flea markets, then graduated to booths
in antique shows of all sizes, as well as many
group shops. Fifteen years ago Sandra and he
rented their first shop in Litchfield, CT. Jeff
is a member of the American Society of Jewelry
Historians, The Jeweler’s Vigilance Committee,
The New York Silver Society, and numerous other
associations. He is in demand as a speaker on
Antique Jewelry and guest appraiser of jewelry
for charity events.
Also an avid musician, Jeff plays several
instruments and enjoys touring on his BMW
motorcycle. Jeff and Sandra are married.
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Jeff Russak’s
early jewelry and Antique experiences:
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. 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 American
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
cool dark quiet broken by brilliant shafts of
light surrounding the cutter’s workbenches --
this is how Jeff remembers the diamond houses.
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 goldsmiths 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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Penny:
Penny
joined us in the year 2001. A devotee of antique
jewelry and a collector of female portraits,
Penny lends her unique taste and expertise to
the selection process of our jewelry as well as
managing client relations and taking many of the
photographs you see on this site. Her positive
demeanor and principled conduct helps to guide
and inform our staff.
She is a jazz aficionado and loves vintage
automobiles. |
Carrie:
Is our back of the house specialist. She
maintains our websites and inventory, keeping
everything up to date. Her steadfast approach to
the business is the heart and soul of our
excellent customer service reputation. You will
often hear cheerful voice on the phone or see
her with us at the New York Pier show.
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