from the book. To get by, Graham
was waitressing, too. She was ap-
prenticed for more than two years,
and left only when she and her hus-
band moved out of the state.
Was it what she had expected?
“I was so young I didn’t know that
I had any expectations of what I
would learn. I don’t even know that
I appreciated how rare an opportu-
nity it was.”
Were there downsides to get-
ting training this way? “I can’t think
of any. There were times I worked
on jewelry that was not my style,
and I felt like ‘why am I setting this
10-carat opal in this basket?’ But it’s
so important to learn as many skills
as you can. It expands your ability
to design whatever you want if you
have an understanding of pro-
cesses. Even if you don’t get good
at it. For example, I was never good
enough to pavé. But I can I design
with pavé even if I have someone
do the setting, because I under-
stand the spacing and so on.”
Truly a Master
Jim Grahl worked for Cooper and
Schuber, a large jewelry trade
shop in Los Angeles, while he was
in his teens. “I fell in love with jew-
elry,” he says.
Although he started out primarily
making rubber molds, over the next
fi ve years he learned all aspects of
jewelry making. While doing so, he
made a number of contacts in the
upscale retail jewelry world, one of
whom lobbied for Grahl to be ap-
prenticed to Gerardo Terranova, an
80-year-old, fi fth-generation Italian
setter who had been the master
pavé setter for Cartier during the
1930s. Terranova had never taken on
an apprentice, until then. As in the
days of yore, in 1968 Grahl was ex-
pected to pay for the privilege and
did — “about $10,000 over a period
of time,” he recalls.
“Terranova was an icon,” says
Grahl. “He was the guy to do your
work — if he would even take it
on. He was short, stocky, tough,
obstinate. He used to keep a few
racquet balls in his bench, and he
was always squeezing the racquet
ball to keep his arms built up. He
had a lot of focus on how you
set, how you held your arms and
shoulders,” for example. “He wasn’t
diffi cult, but he had no tolerance
for anything but the best.”Nanz Aalund
Locket
Roll-printed silver, synthetic sapphire watch crystal, 18K gold
PHOTO: COURTESY NANZ AALUNDBack in the Day
Traditionally, an apprentice
lived with a master for a term of
fi ve to seven years. Sometimes
the apprentice paid the master
for his training. Sometimes,
the master paid the apprentice
a small sum and may have
provided food, lodging, or
clothing. Either way, it was
no picnic: the terms could be
onerous.
Consider the apprenticeship
of one “George Whitford son
of Samuel Whitford” from
the early years of the reign of
Queen Victoria. According to the
contract, the apprentice could
“not commit fornication, nor
contract Matrimony within the
said term. He shall not play at
cards, dice, tables, or any other
unlawful games, whereby his said
Master may have any loss. With
his own goods or others, during
the said Term, without license of
his said Master, he shall neither
buy nor sell. He shall not haunt
taverns or playhouses nor absent
himself from his said Master’s
service day nor night unlawfully.”
In addition, if the master died,
the apprentice had to report to
the guild “to be turned over to
the executor or new master, or he
will lose his Freedom.”
But here’s the real kicker:
the master young George “put
himself Apprentice to” was “the
said Samuel Whitford his father”!George Whitford’s 1837 indenture/
apprenticeship document
COURTESY: ALAN REVERESEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 69