private industry jewellers founded 1852 headquarters san francisco united states products jewelry website www.shreve.com shreve & company is an established retailer of jewelry from timepieces to diamonds headquartered in san francisco california . incorporated in 1894 by george rodman and albert j. lewis 1 it is considered the oldest commercial establishment in san francisco . shreve & co has had a tumultuous history ranging from chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992 to most recently losing their lease to harry winston . 2 contents 1 history 2 notable collections 3 gallery 4 references 5 external links history edit shreve & co. sf 1 play media exploded gas tanks us mint the company s precursor the shreve jewelry company was established by rodman s father and uncle george and samuel shreve who had moved to san francisco from new york city . george learned goldsmithing from his older half brother benjamin . the latter had established shreve crump & low in boston . 3 by the 1880s the shreve jewelry company was considered among the finest silversmiths in the united states selling high quality timepieces gold and silver jewelry aside from diamonds and precious stones . 4 the store which had opened at montgomery and clay soon moved to market street . 3 just a month before the 1906 san francisco earthquake shreve & co. opened its new eleven story building at post and grant . built with the latest engineering technologies of its time the shreve & co. building was one of a few san francisco buildings that survived the april 18 earthquake . 1 with its building rendered unusable the company opened shop in oakland where it stayed for two years . the company s first flatware products and illustrated catalogs were created at this time . 1 in 1992 shreve & co filed chapter 11 bankruptcy owned at the time by birks group of canada and was sold to the schiffman group in north carolina and to suna bros inc. in new york . in 2011 after more than a century of operating within california the company launched its first store in portland oregon offering timepieces from a. lange & s hne baume & mercier iwc jaeger lecoultre officine panerai patek philippe rolex wellendorff and vacheron constantin . in 2015 shreve & co lost their lease to harry winston due to skyrocketing rents around union square . they relocated further down to 150 post st. notable collections edit ice cream fork shreve & company iris service silver 1903 1917 the de young museum has on exhibit shreve & co. silver featuring a complete set of the iris pattern including flatware candlesticks serving bowls and centerpieces . its archives houses over 1 600 of the shreve & co. factory drawings and photographs taken at the shreve & co. factory . the california historical society has the silver spade used by president william howard taft and other objects from shreve & co. including the mellon tea set silver punch bowl presentation piece the huntington prize 1899 a matching silver tray a horse show prize dated 1899 ; silver medals 1902 mechanics institute with presentation case . the san francisco museum and historical society has the silver spade used by san francisco mayor james rolphe at the groundbreaking for city hall and the civic center and other objects made by shreve & co. the oakland museum of california has a large collection of shreve & co. silver from the collection of the late dr. elliot evans curator of the society of pioneers 1956 1971 . the san francisco public library main branch has on exhibit the silver trowel used for the library groundbreaking by mayor rolphe an original miniature spade and the original enclosure card and the tower of jewels souvenir made by shreve & co. gallery edit the shreve building stands amid the ruins of the 1906 san francisco earthquake . the facade of the shreve building during the 1906 san francisco earthquake . the interior of the shreve & company jewelry store in 1909 . the current interior of the shreve & company retail store in san francisco . references edit a b c about us . shreve.com . retrieved 2012 06 18 . san francisco shopping . fodors.com . retrieved 2012 06 19 . a b shreve & company . langantiques.com . retrieved 2012 06 19 . shreve & co. jewelers branching out to oregon . prlog.org . retrieved 2012 06 19 . san francisco bay area portal wikimedia commons has media related to shreve & co. . external links edit about us shreve & co. website shopping union square website 360 degree panorama of union square retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title shreve % 26 co. & oldid 742843817 categories high fashion brandsjewelry retailers of the united statesluxury brandshidden categories commons category template with no category setcommons category without a link on wikidataarticles created via the article wizardarticles containing video clips navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 6 october 2016 at 04 21 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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