When was birks founded

Kylie's grace and elegance captures the essence of Birks Splash. The collaboration was launched in conjunction with Bijoux Birks' expansion in the U. A beloved national treasure and a coveted symbol of Canadian luxury, Bijoux Birks jewellery is recognized internationally for incomparable quality and the delight brought to its beholders. The iconic Birks Blue Box has proudly been part of Canadians' stories since Additional information can be found on the Birks website, Birks.

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You can read more about your cookie choices at our privacy policy here. By continuing to use this site you are consenting to these choices. The Calgary Stampede goes to Birks for its sombrero crests. Inside, however, amid mahogany walls, marble pillars, plateglass showcases and inch-thick carpets!

They know that at Birks the clerks will not stare blankly when asked for a muffineer, but will promptly produce the required sugar dredger. Is she mad or am I ignorant? Most members of the Birks sales staff start on the floor in their teens. Statistics show that if the average male cierk stays seven years he stays for life.

Birks gives financial help to many clerks who take a correspondj ence course to become registered jewelj ers. Among other things they must j learn the history of jewelry from the. The Gemological Institute of America sets the courses. A much stiffer course is set by the American Gem Society which admits to its ranks only top-flight experts who buy, sell and value the most costly stones and metals. The examinee must obtain a hundred percent on the tests.

Passing the first makes him a registered jeweler and the second a certified gemologist. Birks employs half the cerl ified gemologists in Canada. Birks employees, whether they have degrees or not, are constantly reminded of their duty to the customer.

We avoid blunt refusal and the customer is impressed with our desire to oblige. One woman went to Baker with half a dozen rubies she had bought in India—the source of most rubies. She said she had paid more than a hundred dollars each for them. During the war his ship had been sunk by a German raider.

When the captain was picked up from an open boat his rubies were concealed in a heel of his shoe. During three years in a German POW camp his rubies were hidden successfully in the wooden back of his hairbrush.

Baker gave him three thousand dollars for them, twice the original price. A Birks customer bought them on the strength of their romantic story and had them set in a bracelet.

For a firm that deals in small articles of great value, Birks has had few thefts or attempted thefts. On one memorable occasion however a foreign ambassador to Ottawa stole a Birks bracelet. When enquiries were made at the embassy the ambassador swore he had received only one bracelet. Further enquiries showed that he had positively received two.

But the ambassador was adamant in his denial. Hands were held up in horror. No action must be taken. Good relations between the two countries were worth more than a bracelet.

Diplomatic immunity must apply even to ambassadorial larceny. Birks sat back helpless. Henry Birks, now president, was so angry that he told the story in a raised voice in the St.

Then the whole story will come out. A few years later the ambassador died. His widow opened a strongbox to which only the ambassador had had access. There was the bracelet. She returned it to Birks without comment. The firm was most heavily exposed to robbery during a fire at the Montreal store in When the blaze was at its height three men, posing as clerks who had been told to rescue some watches, tried unsuccessfully to get past the police cordon.

Losses amounted to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, all from fire, and were covered by insurance. In a company as old as Birks, past and present tend inevitably to mingle. Thus a transaction begun on Oct. On the former date Mrs. On Oct. The longest Birks transaction on record was completed when president Henry Birks last August received a letter which caused him to call an emergency board meeting. The letter informed Birks that during the uprising of Lower Canada under Papineau a rebel named J.

Chenier had been shot by British redcoats at St. Eustache, about fifteen miles northwest of Montreal. He had received a battleground burial in unconsecrated earth. For some reason, the letter said, probably because the Catholic church in Quebechad opposed the rebellion, the Montreal cemetery authorities refused permission for the remains to be reinterred.

Nobody then had known what to d with the urn. Finally, because th name was on it, Birks were asked take care of it until a solution w; reached. Eustache at the time c the rebellion and had fought agains the redcoats with Chenier.

Jean Baptiste Society, a Quebec Catholic organization? Then Birks vaults were searched anr the urn was found. For some weel it stood in a cardboard box in one q the Birks offices, much to the disma;. About seventy men work in the precious-jewelry factory over the Montreal store—-including Turks, East Indians, Germans, Italians, Belgians, Swiss and English, besides the Canadian majority. When a jeweler dies or retires we sometimes have to scour the world for a replacement.

Every year Gutknecht visits Europe and New York to check trends in design. There is constant rivalry between the two localities.

Innovations on the one side influence the other. Right now, he says, the flowing design is favored. This means that people prefer brooches, rings, clips and buckles set in loose loops, knots and bows of platinum rather than compact masses of densely clustered stones. How much should one spend on an engagement ring?

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