Cresarrow / Henry Blank & Co
In 1912 Henry Blank journeyed to Europe to secure trading rights for importing watch movements with manufacturers in Switzerland and stone dealers in Amsterdam, Belgium and Paris. Although he survived, he certainly picked the wrong ship for his return trip -- the Titanic.
21828 - Platinum Sapphire Diamond Edwardian Cresarrow Bar Pin
Henry moved to Philadelphia with his family in his youth. While still a teenager he later moved to Newark, NJ. in search of better job opportunities. In Newark, he began working for a jewelry manufacturer, and the owners of the firm recognized Henry's own artistic and mechanical abilities. They eventually apprenticed him at the bench where Henry would become a goldsmith and platinumsmith, before he was 21-years-old. Henry established himself with a former friend and jewelry manufacturer, Newton E. Whiteside, in Newark. The two formed a limited partnership named the Newton E. Whiteside & Company, (The United States Patent and Trademark Office registration indicates that the hallmark, C with the arrow through it, was first used for brooches, cuff-buttons, pendants, necklaces and rings by this original firm beginning in 1890.) which became Whiteside and Blank in 1903.
24025 - Art Nouveau Gold Pearl Enamel Cresarrow Flower Pin
In 1911, the company was awarded the exclusive licence to sell a watch expansion bracelet that had been invented in Germany. The venture became immediately successful and Whiteside and Blank devoted more and more time to the watch business, becoming the first in the United States to make wrist watches for ladies, diamond watches, sautoir watches, ring watches, and watches with colored gemstones. The Cresarrow Watch Co, of 19 Liberty St, Newark, New Jersey first used the word "Cresarrow" in 1912 according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This is the same address as Whiteside and Blank. Though it’s not known whether it was treated as a separate company, or a subsidiary. After Newton Whiteside retired in 1912, Blank bought out his shares over a period of five years and renamed the company Henry Blank and Company in 1917.
24051 - Edwardian Cresarrow Platinum Diamond Pearl Floral Pin
Henry quickly expanded the firm’s line, adding platinum, diamond, and plique-a-jour jewelry, festoon necklaces, sautoirs, lavalieres, and lockets. No matter Art Nouveau, Edwardian, or Art Deco, quality was a major priority. Henry Blank made his Company into one of the largest and most successful fine jewelry firms until well after World War II. The finest jewelry retailers sold first its jewelry and subsequently its watches.
61326 - Art Deco "Bulova" Diamond Watch
Pendant, chatelaine, gents pocket watches, as well as both men and women’s wrist watches. Tiffany and Company was Blank’s largest account. Henry Blank, and later his son Harry, visited Tiffany’s offices every week beginning about 1911. Other New York City customers included Marcus and Company, Black, Starr & Frost, and Raymond C. Yard. There was J. E. Caldwell and Company, and Bailey, Banks and Biddle of Philadelphia, as well as Shreve, Crump and Low of Boston, and Shreve and Company of San Francisco.
61331 - Platinum Diamond Art Deco Tiffany C.H. Meylan Cresarrow Watch
43991 - Circa 1950 Platinum Diamond Choker Necklace With Platinum Cresarrow Clasp
As was customary since the firm was established over a decade before, both Henry and his partner Newton Whiteside would take annual business and pleasure excursions to Europe in the early Spring. In the Spring of 1912, Henry Blank traveled alone to Europe to conduct the customary dealings with watch movement manufacturers in Switzerland and stone dealers in Paris, Belgium and Amsterdam. On his return home, Henry made reservations in Paris to embark on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.
Harry was known for his interest in anything new. With the Titanic, being the latest in ship design, it was only natural for Henry to take the opportunity to sail on the world's largest and most luxurious ocean liner.
Henry describes the Titanic's sinking
Henry Blank related very little about his experiences on the Titanic up until the night of the disaster. Like most passengers, he most likely toured his ocean home in wonder, and marveled at the advancement in technology.
Though traveling alone, Blank was far from being so during the voyage. As Henry tells his story, on the night of 14 April, Henry Blank retired to the first-class smoking room with 2 other men. The trio began a card game, lit their cigars and began conversing.
When the Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m., Henry only remembered having felt "a slight jar." A loud voice called out to the men in the room, "Hey boys, we've just grazed an iceberg!"
Henry Blank was soon on his feet with the others in a vain attempt to spot the berg from the promenade deck. Having passed the iceberg, it was not in sight, the men returned to the smoking room and did not seem worried. Blank later recalled that he had felt worse jars "when the ship's propellers had jumped out of the water." The Titanic came to a stop shortly after the men returned. Puzzled, the three men left the smoking room and went below to look for trouble, and to their surprise and horror, saw seawater entering the squash racquet court. The men needed no orders or instructions and quickly returned to their staterooms to prepare for an evacuation.
Henry was among the first to arrive on the starboard Boat Deck. Small groups followed, and soon others arrived. The group was assisted into lifeboat 7, the first lifeboat to be lowered from the sinking Titanic. Henry Blank and other men who entered the boat had no trouble in getting in. Since it was so early in the evacuation, many women refused to leave the Titanic without their husbands, fathers, and male companions. In an effort to move the evacuation along, the ships officer, who was in charge of lowering the boats on the starboard boat deck, did allow several men into lifeboat 7 to help with the rowing and because there was plenty of room.
Henry Blank later said, "Every woman and child in sight was ordered into the boat but there were not enough there to fill it and in that way some of us got a chance for our lives."
"After we were some distance from the ship, I heard revolver shots on board, but I don't know what part of the ship they came from. I was under the impressions, as were many in my boat, that everyone had escaped. When there arose a roar from the vessel herself and the screams of those passengers and crew still, I was almost overcome by the horror of the situation. Realizing that many were still aboard and left to perish has left a permanent scar. We saw the Titanic plunge forward and then down out of sight but not before we heard the explosions of her boilers. The sea was very calm and there was floating ice everywhere. The women in our boat began to get chilled and we men took off our coats and wrapped them about them."
The next morning, the occupants of boat 7 were pulled from the icy Atlantic by the rescue ship, Carpathia. Mrs Blank never let her husband travel to Europe alone again and accompanied him on all of his future trips. She died in 1942. Henry Blank returned to his firm, and continued to prosper in later years.
61109 - Art Deco Marcus C H Meylan Cresarrow Platinum Diamond Sapphire Watch
Blank’s strategy of bringing European design to American jewelry stores was successful. During the post-World War I rush to buy, sales remained high throughout the 1920s. During this decade of exuberant consumerism, Blank followed the example of Cartier and other European jewelers and made ever more elaborate types of watch straps. Mesh bracelets of seed pearls and wire were constructed by hand in Blank’s factory. Pendant and Chatelaine watches were also fashionable, and among the most popular alternatives to wristwatches for women in the first quarter of the 20th century. They swiveled so they could be read while suspended from a brooch.
61345 - Circa 1915 Gold Platinum Diamond Enamel Pendant Watch
During the 1920s and 30s, Henry Blank was an officer of Davis & Lowe (two longtime Blank employees), which produced economical white gold watch cases. In 1938 D & L became the Cresarrow Watch CO, and Henry Blank the president. The Cresarrow movement fit into small ladies watches. This movement was also sold under the C.H. Meylan name. Henry Blank & Co. was a long standing, successful jewelry manufacturer because it produced quality, high-end jewels and watches. Henry Blank made a wide variety of styles and continued to adapt to emerging fashions, throughout two world wars and the great depression. He remained president until his death, in 1949, and his four sons then managed the company until it closed its doors in 1986.
Sources
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/henry-blank.html
https://www.themagazineantiques.com/article/jeweled-watches-henry-blank
http://www.gregsteer.net/IWC/Cresarrow/Henry Blank and Cresarrow.html
The Glitter & the Gold: Fashioning Americas Jewelry - ISBN-10 : 0932828345 Publisher : Newark Museum Assn (June 1, 1997)