The Dazzle and The Shimmer
Cufflinks of Ziething & Co.

Ziething "Bull's Eye" cufflinks circa 1925.

Ziething & Company is one of the lesser known makers of fine cufflinks
from the first half of the 20th century.  The firm created intricately engraved cuff jewels with beautifully engine-turned centers often surrounded by boldly engraved white gold borders.  When brightly polished these elegant cufflinks literally dazzle and shimmer with reflected light.

Ziething & Co. was based in Newark, New Jersey and specialized in creating 10kt and 14kt gold jewelry.  The style and linkage of the firm's cufflinks suggests they were created mostly during the 1920s and early 1930s.  I suspect Ziething, like a number of the other cufflink makers in the early 20th century, did not survive the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The maker's mark for Ziething & Co. is the letter "Z" in a diamond-shaped surround.  The maker's mark is usually found stamped in the middle of the bridge.  The other side of the bridge is stamped with the gold purity mark, "10K".  The Ziething maker's mark is sometimes misidentified as an "N" in an elongated diamond.

Ziething "Spider Web" cufflinks, circa 1925.

Several years ago a reader of the original blog post for this article kindly provided the following background information about Ziething & Co. and its eponymous founder:

"It's good to see the cuff links by Ziething & Co.  The business was started by my Gt Gt Gt uncle William Henry Ziething (1875-1944) who was brought to America by his father Henry Ziething in about 1884.  William was born in Portsmouth UK.  Henry did not get on with his wife and told her that he was taking William & his sister Ada for a holiday to Germany.  They actually went to Newark, New Jersey where they settled.  William & Ada's mother Amelia never knew what happened to the family and assumed that they had drowned on there way to Germany."

Elegant examples of cufflinks created by Ziething & Co.
can be found on the Antique Cufflink Gallery.

Or, if you prefer snail mail, my postal address is:

Arthur Anderson
PO Box 1448
Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA
01944-0870

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2024 All Rights Reserved