JVC's History | | 1906 | Congress passes the National Gold & Silver Marking Act (later generally referred to as the National Stamping Act). JVC will be very active in future amendments to the Act to give it greater muscle and relevance for the industry.
| | 1912 | The Good and Welfare Committee of the National Jewelers Board of Trade, charged among other things with upholding the recently enacted stamping laws, begins a campaign to have the act strengthened by amendment. Its activist chairman, Harry C. Larter later becomes first chairman of the jewelers Vigilance Committee when it is incorporated in 1917.
Gus Niemeyer, who in 1932 succeeds Larter as JVC chairman, years later identifies the Good and Welfare Committee as the informal precursor of JVC. In an April 1949 address to the JVC's annual meeting he notes, however, 'certain elements in the industry' in the early part of the century "were strong enough to squelch demands made to control violations of the law."
The American Jewelers Protection Association, a body created primarily to combat smuggling, is incorporated in New York City on April 18. This group is active in the international fight against diamond smuggling-a common practice by companies and individuals (often tourists) in the first half of the century. During World War II its activities are sharply curtailed and its board offers to merge with JVC in 1945. JVC's board approves the move and makes a token purchase of $1 for AJPA's physical assets (largely furniture) and membership list. JVC agrees to form a standing Protection Bureau committee to continue anti-smuggling efforts.
Because of JVC's acquisition of AJPA, it could be argued that the association's date of incorporation in 1912 is the logical starting point for JVC.
| | 1914 | The Federal Trade Commission is created.
| | 1915 | FTC officials meet with Larter and his Good and Welfare Committee.
| | 1917 | The Jewelers Vigilance Committee holds its first official meeting on the afternoon of March 23 in the rooms of the 24 Karat Club in the Silver Smiths building on New York's Maiden Lane.
| | 1918 | JVC holds its first organizational meeting on May 21. Harry Larter is chairman. Discussion centers on the need for tighter controls on the marking of platinum. In subsequent meetings that year, JVC begins its extended battle to protect the jewelry industry from what it considers unfair federal taxes. It also criticizes sharply a mid-1918 move by the Council of National Defense to encourage citizens to forgo giving Christmas gifts that year. Following the end of the war on Nov. 11, 1918, JVC is a leader in boosting the idea of giving jewelry as a Christmas gift.
| | 1919 | A busy year for JVC. Among the topics debated at its regular committee meetings: the need for tighter tolerances in the marking of karat gold; endorsement of a proposed New York State law making the minimum purity for platinum 925/1000 (the existing U.S. standard was 750/1000); rejection of jewelry workers' demands for a reduction of the official work week from 44 to 39 hours without loss of pay; and concern about lax security in the Maiden Lane jewelry district. (One proposal: Provide JVC Christmas gifts to all beat cops and detectives assigned to the area.)
JVC also begins a long and continuing crusade against fraudulent and misleading advertising of jewelry store products.
| | 1920 | JVC makes a direct appeal to President Woodrow Wilson on Dec. 24 to end the "punitive and unfair" excise tax on jewelry. The wartime tax, scheduled to lapse within a year of the end of hostilities in 1918, stays in place.
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| 1921 | JVC applauds the New York State legislature for passing the 925/1000 platinum law. Among other issues addressed during the year: a condemnation of advertisers in the jewelry journals who list cost rather than keystone prices and a debate on how to improve the use of nomenclature in the presentation and sale of colored stones.
| | 1920's | Much of the JVC effort during this period is devoted to discussion of how to win amendments to the National Stamping Act. Earlier, in 1919, Harry Larter identified such action as the committee's No. 1 goal when he outlined JVC's "plans for the future." Three other top goals: work out plans for the adoption of the metric system in weighing precious metals used in jewelry; formulate and inaugurate a National Standard Ring Gauge; and urge manufacturers and retailers to stop doing work for no charge to counter "the marked increased cost of labor of all kinds and also the abuse imposed on the jewelry trade by the consuming public."
| | 1932 | Harry Larter dies. Gustav H. Niemeyer succeeds him and will continue in various roles with JVC until his death in 1967.
| | 1933 | JVC hits a low point. Its financial assets dwindle to just over $200, and at two consecutive executive committee meetings, on Feb. 5 and March 18, its members seriously debate disbanding. In each case, the decision is to continue in existence. The committee also decides to launch a fund-raising drive, a move JVC has to resort to many times over the following years.
Passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act prompts JVC to call an industry meeting to see how jewelers can respond. It is stressed that JVC's role will be as "coordinator" of the effort, not leader. Also on the government front, JVC, working with Handy & Harman, exposes companies selling stainless-steel items as 14k or 18k "white gold.
| | 1934 | Niemeyer reports 20 "active" cases at the November meeting. They include action against the Mexican Gem Importing Co. for passing off imitation diamonds for the real thing (ceased); against a Providence, R.I., firm selling bracelets stamped "sterling" (testing shows the metal is not sterling); turning over to immigration authorities a man preparing to sell "gold" merchandise; turning in to authorities a company selling diamonds "below market for cash."
JVC begins a decade-long program with FTC to help develop "commercial standards" on marking gold, silver, and platinum.
| | 1937 | A special meeting of JVC manufacturers is called in Newark, N.J, to endorse a National Bureau of Standards recommendation that only gold items containing at least 10 parts in 24 of gold (namely, 10k) can be called gold and calling for a manufacturer's mark to accompany any quality mark on precious metal. The bureau also seeks support for no or very slim tolerances in fineness marks. JVC works with the New England Manufacturing Jewelers & Silversmiths on marking issues.
JVC continues its active role as adviser on correct industry practice, giving members details on close to 100 cases. One, for example, involves a leading New York department store advertising "simulated gold" charms, which is misleading, JVC informs the store. In reply, the store says the gold plating is so thin it hesitates to call the items gold-plated and asks what it should do. JVC suggests using the terms "gold wash" or "gold flash" and the store does so.
Members of JVC's executive committee worry that so much of the agency's work is confidential, neither the industry nor consumers fully appreciate it. Plans are made to publicize JVC's work more forcefully.
| | 1941 | JVC cooperates with the National Wholesale Jewelers Association to control and expose a flood of mismarked goods. NWJA buys and sends 22k gold items to JVC for assay: 13 are judged okay, but nine are underkarated.
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| 1942-45 | JVC takes the industry lead in dealing with the many federal agencies directing the war effort, among them, the Office of Price Administration and the War Production Board. Price controls on diamonds are a hot issue, with confusion about which sizes and qualities will be affected. In mid-1943, one OPA official concedes that the diamond pricing situation is "hopeless and enforcement impossible."
JVC creates its own Jewelers War Production Committee, which works with the government to determine how the industry can help the war effort and which firms are most qualified. It supervises the work of the Newark Jewelry Manufacturers War Production Pool, assigning tasks to appropriate producers. The small size of many jewelry firms makes cooperation difficult. JVC also appoints special committees to deal with wartime issues affecting karat gold, silver, platinum, precious stones, and salvage.
In 1943, JVC forms a special committee to fight a proposed increase in the federal excise tax on jewelry. JVC's intense wartime activities lead to a suggestion by the president of the National Wholesale Jewelers Association, made at a 1944 meeting of the American National Retail Jewelers Association, that JVC is the "appropriate nucleus" for an industry committee to formulate postwar planning.
Meanwhile, JVC continues its bread and butter work. In 1942, its activities are divided about equally between handling cases of false advertising and misbranding of merchandise. In that year it doses 71 cases as follows: by direct negotiation, 29; complaint unwarranted, 24; criminal conviction, 11; referred to other agencies, 3; FTC action, 2; and 2 dismissed or acquitted. In 1944, JVC begins work with Better Business Bureaus nationally to help pinpoint and stop misleading advertising of jewelry products.
| | 1945 | Four critical actions mark JVC's present and future in the year World War II finally ends.
1) It starts the year by hiring its first permanent executive, P. Irving Grinberg, and acquiring office space at 82 Fulton St. in New York. Grinberg, who comes from the cultured pearl industry and served with the War Production Board, is named executive vice president and general counsel.
2) It acquires control of the American Jewelers Protection Association and forms its own Protection Bureau committee.
3) It holds the first meeting of its Jewelry Industry Tax Committee (JITC), a body that eventually will play a key role in the removal of the hated federal jewelry excise taxes some 20 years later.
4) It revises its bylaws. The preamble states (among other goals) that JVC's purposes are "to foster trade and commerce in the jewelry industry and the business interests of manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers engaged therein; to secure freedom from unjust and unlawful exactions; to diffuse accurate and reliable information pertinent to trade activities; to procure uniformity and certainty in the customs and usages of trade and commerce and of those having a common interest in the jewelry trade; to settle and adjust differences between members of the industry and to promote a more enlarged and friendly intercourse among them."
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| 1945 | Four critical actions mark JVC's present and future in the year World War II finally ends.
1) It starts the year by hiring its first permanent executive, P. Irving Grinberg, and acquiring office space at 82 Fulton St. in New York. Grinberg, who comes from the cultured pearl industry and served with the War Production Board, is named executive vice president and general counsel.
2) It acquires control of the American Jewelers Protection Association and forms its own Protection Bureau committee.
3) It holds the first meeting of its Jewelry Industry Tax Committee (JITC), a body that eventually will play a key role in the removal of the hated federal jewelry excise taxes some 20 years later.
4) It revises its bylaws. The preamble states (among other goals) that JVC's purposes are "to foster trade and commerce in the jewelry industry and the business interests of manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers engaged therein; to secure freedom from unjust and unlawful exactions; to diffuse accurate and reliable information pertinent to trade activities; to procure uniformity and certainty in the customs and usages of trade and commerce and of those having a common interest in the jewelry trade; to settle and adjust differences between members of the industry and to promote a more enlarged and friendly intercourse among them."
| | 1945-53 | Regular work policing the industry's bad apples continues, with a stress on rooting out phony jewelry advertising and other forms of misrepresentation about the industry and its products. But a huge amount of time is spent on winning relief from the 20% excise tax. To help its cause, JITC teams up with the cosmetics, luggage, and fur industries.
As time passes with no tangible results, industry criticism of JVC's tax efforts grows. In 1949, the Jewelry Research Foundation is created, largely at the behest of watch industry executives. Its stated goal is to prepare a case, based strictly on economics, for ending the excise tax.
Niemeyer and JITC approve of the new body but insist that a single voice, namely JITC, must speak for the industry. In 1950, however, the Jewelry Research Foundation prepares to take its own case to Congress-ignoring the fact that JITC already has arranged a presentation to the Senate Finance Committee. An industry victory seems in sight when the House votes to repeal the tax - but, before the Senate can act, the Korean War starts. Once more, tax relief has to go on the back burner.
The bad blood between JVC and its critics continues. In 1953, both sides meet for a full discussion. Three speakers are particularly critical of JVC's work- Ralph Lazrus of Benrus Watch Co. who also speaks for the American Watch Association; Fred Dreifus, a retailer speaking on behalf of the National Jewelers Association; and Leo Weisfield, chief executive of the Seattle- based retail chain bearing his name. The outcome: Critics of JVC propose formation of a new group, to be called the Retail Jewelers Tax Committee, with three members from the National Jewelers Association and three from the American National Retail Jewelers Association (the two would merge successfully four years later to create Retail Jewelers of America, today's Jewelers of America Inc.) Niemeyer is offered the vice chairmanship, and the group seeks Cecil Kaufman, chief executive of Kay Jewelers, as chairman. In a voice vote, the critics win.
| | 1957 | FTC, after years of work with JVC, enacts new, expanded Guides for the Jewelry Industry. Their purpose: to protect the industry and public from "unfair methods of competition, unfair deceptive acts or practices and other trade abuses." This document becomes the ethical base for all industry practice. In the following two years, FTC moves strongly against cases of deceptive pricing.
| | 1958 | At JVC's urging, FTC revises the Guides to make them more responsive to industry needs.
| | 1961 | JVC scores another victory. After years of urging, Congress amends the National Stamping Act to require that manufacturers who put a quality mark on a precious metal item also add their trademark.
| | 1964 | The temporarily discredited Jewelry Industry Tax Committee is back in business, with a vengeance. It's now headed by Robert Krementz (who will become JVC president in 1970); he teams up with Victor Paul, chairman of Retail Jewelers of America, to wage a new - and final - war on the excise tax. JVC and RJA commission an economic report by Harley Hinrichs, a University of Maryland professor, to show how counterproductive the tax has become. At last, Congress is persuaded.
After almost 20 years of service, Irving Grinberg retires. John Benton, who has spent the previous five years as an attorney for the FTC, succeeds him.
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| 1965 | President Lyndon Johnson signs the bill repealing the retail excise tax. Free at last!
| | 1966 | Gus Niemeyer dies at 84, ending a remarkable industry career. He headed Handy & Harman for many years. In addition to his dedication to JVC, he held top offices with the Jewelers' Security Alliance, the Jewelry Industry Council (now the Jewelry Information Center), and the 24 Karat Club of New York. The position of JVC chairman is retired. Future chief executives will be named president and be limited to two one-year terms.
| | 1968 | JVC starts sending gold merchandise to the Birmingham Assay Office in Britain for testing.
| | 1969 | John Benton resigns. Sheldon Hicks, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and former public relations director for the Retired Officers Association, replaces him as executive vice president. Joel Windman is hired as general counsel. Windman, an assistant district attorney general in the State of New York's Anti- Monopolies Bureau, succeeds Hicks as executive vice president in 1973.
| | 1970 | The National Stamping Act is amended again, at JVC's urging, allowing consumers, competitors, and trade associations to take violators to court.
JVC radically increases the number of cases it handles. Between 1912 and 1969 it took on fewer than 500 cases. In the next 17 years, it will take on more than 5,000. To uncover misrepresentation, JVC launches a series of shopping trips. The committee starts a campaign to eliminate phony pricing in catalog showroom price advertising, a mission that takes much of its efforts over the next two to three years. JVC also, for the first time, becomes seriously interested in misleading and inaccurate jewelry appraisals.
| | 1970 | JVC abolishes "corporate memberships" and relies on contributions from an open-to all dues-paying membership. The aim, says then-president Robert Krementz, is to "build a much larger organization with a stronger financial base."
| | 1973 | William S. Preston Jr. is the first retailer to become JVC president. Five years later he becomes chairman of a committee charged with revising the FTC Guides for the jewelry Industry. His dedication to this mammoth task brings a JVC inspired focus to the industry's ethical behavior and reshapes the way that many firms, both retailers and manufacturers, go about their daily business.
| | 1976 | Congress, at JVC's urging, adopts its third amendment to the National Stamping Act, tightening allowable tolerances in precious metal marking of fineness.
| | 1978 | Working closely with JVC executive vice president Joel Windman, Preston begins work on revision of the Guides, launching a campaign that will not be completed until 1996, when FTC finally issues a revised edition - one that various industry leaders challenge almost immediately.
| | 1981 | JVC sends its first proposed revision of the Guides to FTC in January. By early fall it sends the first of a series of proposed amendments, two of which - the issues of disclosing lasering and a tight definition of diamond total weight - become the center of continuing controversy. To defuse criticism of the lasering proposal, Preston suggests that disclosure apply only to diamonds of .20 ct. or more. On total weight, he insists on a tolerance of .00 5 ct. (or half a point).
Later, JVC changes its position on total weight goods, proposing that each piece be marked with the minimum total weight of the diamonds. Manufacturers turn thumbs down on all these proposals, arguing that lasering is merely part of the normal cutting process and that it's impractical for mass producers of diamond jewelry to record exact weight of the stones used without adding significantly to the cost.
| | 1982 | JVC forms a Monitoring Committee to "assure compliance" with the law. Its first goal is to check for violations of the National Stamping Act. Within months (early in 1983), it announces that 20% of the gold jewelry it buys and samples falls below legal tolerances on gold content. It receives written assurances from half of the offending manufacturers that they'll discontinue the practice. The committee also reports that it is offering an assay service. JVC moves its offices to 1180 Avenue of the Americas.
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| 1983 | The first board meeting ever to be held west of the Mississippi is called to order in Los Angeles. Says Windman: "The JVC has always been a national organization, but this odyssey west makes us feel it more strongly." He's less bullish about another association odyssey - the drive to win FTC support to wipe out deceptive pricing. "This is a dormant, festering issue affecting all jewelers north, east, south, and west," he declares. "We need the cooperation of the FTC to issue and enforce new guidelines against deceptive pricing once and for all." An FTC official at the meeting indicates any action is unlikely, arguing that discounted prices benefit the consumer. Some of JVC's chain store members discourage any action on retail pricing.
| | 1984 | Undeterred by the federal rebuff, JVC decides at its annual membership meeting to take its fight against deceptive pricing to state and local governments. Howard Michaels, a former JVC president, condemns "the proliferation of phony pricing" and charges that FTC just can't cope.
Somewhat belatedly, the gem investment committee reports that it's sending revised guidelines for ethical behavior in this business to FTC. (Most gem investment scams of recent years died off with the collapse of the diamond market in 1981.) A key proposal by the committee: "Consumers should assure themselves, before buying a gemstone for investment, that the seller is registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission as well as with the various attorneys general of states that require registration."
JVC begins a four-year battle to deny the Ullenberg Corp. the right to register the phrase "Forever Yours, DeBeers Dia. Ltd." as its exclusive trademark. JVC argues that the slogan will confuse its members and other jewelers, prompting them to believe that De Beers Consolidated Mines and its famous slogan, "A Diamond Is Forever," are connected to Ullenberg. Along the way, the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board rejects JVC's role, arguing that it has no legal standing. But the U.S. Court of Appeals says JVC indeed has a right to proceed, and it orders Ullenberg to stop using the De Beers name. Windman exults that the landmark ruling means that trade groups, companies, and even individuals can fight questionable trademarks, even without a financial interest in the case. The ruling, he adds, "shows JVC has the power to protect the jewelry trade and public from misrepresentation."
| | 1985 | JVC sends its "final" recommendations for revisions in Guides for the jewelry Industry to FTC. The federal agency indicates that they will be published in the Federal Register for comment, probably early in 1987.
JVC decides to seek wider publicity for its activities, launching its "Action of the Month" bulletins. These will cite violations of good business practices and list the names of those who refuse to obey the law.
| | 1987 | Jewelers of America says all exhibitors at its shows must abide by a federal regulation governing jewelry or face expulsion. Under the new policy, JVC will monitor compliance and handle complaints of alleged violations. The Pacific Jewelry Show soon sign up for similar protection.
JVC, with JA's encouragement, starts work with the Better Business Bureau in a pilot program in Toledo, Ohio. The goal is to monitor local jewelry sales and develop a method for arbitration of consumer complaints.
JVC opens its first West Coast office, in Los Angeles.
| | 1990 | The fight against false pricing picks up steam. Barrie Birks, head of JVC's truth-in- pricing (TIP) committee, tells the annual meeting that JVC will file friend-of-the-court briefs in support of government agencies and others who bring action against those who practice deceptive pricing. The "truth movement," in association with JA, spreads rapidly, with 23 of JA's 43 state affiliates forming their own TIP committees.
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| 1992 | JVC locks horns with Harry Winston Inc. over a new advertising slogan Winston wants to copyright: "A Diamond Is for Always." JVC argues before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeals Board that jewelers and consumers will confuse the slogan with De Beers' long-established "A Diamond Is Forever," giving Winston an "unfair competitive advantage." Under pressure, Winston eventually backs off.
| | 1995 | JVC revisits the appraisal issue, taking a major stand to rid the industry of false, misleading, or uninformed jewelry appraisals. In a months-long effort, JVC's Appraisal Task Force, headed by respected Kansas City jeweler Harold Tivol, draws opinions from all sides of the industry, then recommends "minimum guidelines for insurance cost estimate documentation for jewelers." Larry Phillips a noted jewelry appraiser and member of the task force, comments: "The guidelines represent a sincere effort to bring good information to an industry in sore need of it. They are neither perfect nor set in stone. They are neither a law nor a panaca. They were never intended to shield jewelers from liability resulting from their own representations or misrepresentations." The recommendations are attacked by a number of professional appraisers, but the consensus is that for the first time they give jewelers fair and workable guidelines.
| | 1996 | At long last, FTC issues new, revised Guides for the jewelry Industry. Among the changes from earlier editions: FTC excludes lasering of a diamond from the list of treatments that always should be disclosed to consumers; rejects JVCs proposal to mark total weight pieces with a minimum total diamond weight, allowing sellers to quote a product in fractional carat terms but insisting that the seller accompany the quote with a weight range used for the fraction (i.e., one-fifth can be between. 18 ct. and .22 ct.); and indicates that it's not an unfair trade practice not to disclose gemstone treatment if the treatment is permanent and does not call for special care.
Sherman Titens, a consultant, prepares a strategic plan for the organization at the board's request.
| | 1997 | In Project Mall, JVC uses private investigators to buy hundreds of pieces of l0k gold jewelry at more than 100 stores and kiosks in 74 malls in 13 states. London's Goldsmiths Hall determines that most is underkarated; many don't carry trademarks. Following JVC warnings, further research finds about 80% of the guilty stores now comply with the law. At least five major manufacturers of jewelry, all based in the United States, are implicated based on information from the retailers.
Joel Windman and JVC's assistant executive director, Rachel Kaufman, resign and form their own consulting firm. Michael D. Roman, former chairman and chief executive of Jewelers of America, is named interim executive vice president. A search committee seeks a new top officer, and in June 1998, Cecilia L. Gardner is named as the new executive director and general counsel. She has served as a special attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Organized Crime and Racketeering Section and as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York.
| | 1998 | JVC conducts a two-day "retreat" in New York City. Its goal: "To achieve an open discussion of core issues confronting the JVC, both substantive and internal, identify obstacles and opportunities for the JVC, and, ultimately, set plans of action in the identified areas of concern." A high-level group of industry leaders debates six topics: industry code of ethics and standards; membership; disclosure; international trademark registry, legal activities; and deceptive pricing. There's general agreement to take follow-up action on all issues except deceptive pricing.
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| 1999 | JVC petitions FTC to amend its recently promulgated Guides for the jewelry industry to require the disclosure of diamond lasering. Gardner offers three principal supporting arguments:
(1) the diamond industry, which earlier strongly opposed disclosure, now supports it;
(2) human intervention with a natural product requires disclosure; and
(3) failure to disclose human intervention can lead to unfair pricing because of the difference in value between lasered and non-lasered diamonds.
In response to the Gardner petition, the FTC publishes in the Federal Register proposals for two changes in the Guides and invites public comment. One call is for comment on the lasering issue. The second picks up on the "change in value" concept following gemstone treatment and takes a new look at permanent treatments that call for no special care. Under the existing Guides, such treatments need not be disclosed. Now, FTC proposes adding this consideration: "Permanent treatments that do not create special care requirements should be disclosed if the treatment has a significant effect on the stone's value and if a consumer, acting reasonably under the circumstances, could not ascertain that the stone has been treated."
Clearly, as JVC enters a new period in its long and eventful history, it's signaling that there will be bite to go with the bark.
| | 1999 | JVC applies for its first JCK grant to create the Precious Metals Testing Facility housed within JVC's offices. Within a year, JVC is testing karatage on over 1,000 items a year for their members and the industry at large.
| | 2000 | JVC applies for its second JCK grant to create J-BAR, the Jewelers Board of Appraisal Review. Despite industry controversy, this new appraisal board is seen as an idea whose time had arrived.
| | 2001 | J-BAR is formed and becomes a reality, housed within JVC offices. Cecilia Gardner acts as its first Executive Director, in addition to her JVC duties. J-BAR is a wholly-owned subsidiary of JVC. JVC also hires industry veteran and third-generation jeweler Caroline Stanley for its newly created position of marketing/development director.
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