“Wiss, Founded 1848, New Jersey’s Leading Jewelers”
I was recently contacted by Don Wiss, a descendant (one of many) of the J. Wiss & Sons Jewelers & Wiss Shears families. Here is our correspondence below:
January 19, 2008
Hi Frank,
I see we both like to take pictures of buildings (my Brooklyn storefronts are famous enough that I presume you are aware of them). I came upon your site because of your picture of the Wiss building in Newark. It is a bit sad for me to see it. I have a picture from an old book, and it looked a lot better.
I just bought the Better Homes & Garden ad that you show. I gather you settled for the picture that was used to sell it. Where did your Wiss Store ad come from? My side of the family was the manufacturing side, so I have less interest in the store.My newest site is jwissandsons.com. That ad just arrived today, and I just put a PDF of it up. If you want a higher quality image of the ad I can provide one.
Don.
Dear Don-
Very pleased to meet you. Went to your site and it is voluminously entertaining. Will link your jwiss and donwiss sites & pdf to the [original] posting and post a new one about your site. Funny how similar interests and the Internet can make people cross paths. How did you stumble upon my blog? Do keep in touch and glad to have converged!
Best,
Frank
Don’s reply:
I follow what is being sold under Wiss at eBay. I buy some scissors. I look for material for my jwiss site. And mostly I send corrections for the listings to the sellers. One of the current listings (for a silver plated pinking shears which is new to me) borrowed the same text from the Smithonian’s SIRIS site that you borrowed. When I saw it I recognized it as being familiar, but I couldn’t remember where. So I searched on a string of it.
Visit the J. Wiss & Sons Co. Website!
Scissor Plan – TIME Magazine 1933
1906 ad – E-bay
I was just posting some scans from found glass plates.
One is a close-up crop of a parade and J. Wiss & Sons is prominently displayed on a tall building.
You can see it here.
Thanks for the link to the image Pico!
Hello,
I have a pair of J.Wiss & Sons Co., pinking shears that need to be sharpen. Where do I sent them for service?
I can be reach at 410 939-9363 of by e-mail.
Thank you,
Cheryl
Mr. Don Wiss, My mother passed away and going thru her things was this pair of scissors. We don’t know anything about them. We looked up Scissors and your family’s name came up as a scissors maker company. I read your family history and it was something to be proud of. If you can help us you e-mail me. Thank You for your time.
Don Wiss is a complete jack ass. I had the displeasure of doing business with him years ago and let me tell you this world would be better off without him!