S.B.
Champlin Company
Providence,
RI
1872
- 1934
The men's watch chain or "Vest
Chain" is typically much scarcer than the pocket watch itself. This is because by 1915, the watch was
retired to storage and the chain “discarded”, thrown away, or women converted
them to bracelets. This fine men’s vest chain
presented was produced by the Champlin Co. in 1896, inventoried, and was never
sold to the trade or Jeweler for sale. It
is therefore, in pristine, new but old stock condition! Can’t get any rarer or desirable!
A sharply angled, almost-triangular-plan
5-story brick industrial building, this was constructed by the S.B. Champlin
Company (established 1872) to house its manufacturing of gold rings and
gold-filled chains as well as provide rental space for other jewelry
manufacturers, an own-and-rent practice then common in the jewelry industry and
characteristic of neighboring contemporary buildings in the Jewelry District.
The building was so successful that it was enlarged to the south in 1901; only
a faintly visible seam marks the union of the two sections. In 1978, the
building was converted to condominium use, the first of its type in the area,
and retains mixed residential and commercial use.