Marshall Field & Company — Chicago's Department-Store Jewellery Authority
Marshall Field & Company — Chicago's Department-Store Jewellery Authority
From State Street pioneer to Macy's acquisition, the American department store as fine jewellery retailer
Marshall Field & Company was the Chicago department store founded in 1852 (under earlier names) by Marshall Field and successive partners, and from the late 19th century onward one of the principal American retail outlets for fine jewellery, silverware, and watches sold under both the store's own name and the major American and European maker marks. Field's State Street flagship — opened in 1907 in the Daniel Burnham-designed building that still stands at the corner of State and Washington — was for nearly a century one of the principal showcases of American department-store retailing, and the jewellery department within it was among the most consequential fine-jewellery counters in the American Midwest.
Founding and growth
The store traces its origin to 1852, when Potter Palmer opened a dry-goods business in Chicago. Marshall Field joined the firm as a partner in 1865; the business operated as Field, Leiter and Company through the 1860s and 1870s, becoming Marshall Field & Company in 1881 after Field bought out Levi Leiter's interest. The Great Fire of 1871 destroyed the original building; the store rebuilt and continued to grow through the late 19th century into the largest department store west of New York. Field died in 1906; the firm continued under his successors and through the 20th century.
The jewellery department
Marshall Field's jewellery department, located on the State Street flagship's main floor, retailed fine jewellery, silverware, and watches across the late 19th and 20th centuries. The store's buyers worked the major American and European markets — New York, Newark, Providence, Paris, London, Geneva, Basel — and the department carried both store-branded production (made for Field's by Tiffany & Co., Edward Mariotti, and other contracted manufacturers) and the work of named makers retailed through the store. The standards maintained by Field's jewellery department were those of a serious fine-jewellery retailer; the buyers were knowledgeable, the merchandise was selected with care, and the store's reputation for integrity was actively defended.
Notable retailing relationships
Field's retailed Tiffany & Co. silverware and selected jewellery items through much of the late 19th and 20th centuries, in a relationship that operated alongside Tiffany's own retail expansion. The store also retailed Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and other major European houses through its Paris and Geneva buying offices, and carried the work of leading American studio jewellers and silversmiths. The Marshall Field & Co. mark on jewellery and silverware indicates a piece sold through the store; in the case of stamped silver and jewellery, the mark may be alongside or instead of the actual maker's mark, depending on the relationship and the commission terms.
Decline and acquisition
Marshall Field's, like the broader American department-store sector, faced increasing competition from suburban shopping centres, specialty retailers, and discount channels through the second half of the 20th century. The firm was acquired by BATUS in 1982, by Dayton Hudson Corporation (later Target Corporation) in 1990, by The May Department Stores Company in 2004, and by Federated Department Stores (which owned Macy's) in 2005. In 2006 the Marshall Field's name was retired and the stores were rebranded as Macy's, ending nearly 155 years of independent operation. The State Street flagship building remains in operation as Macy's State Street.
Position in the historical record
For the historian of American department-store retailing, Marshall Field's is one of the half-dozen most consequential American department stores of the 19th and 20th centuries (with Wanamaker's, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Filene's, Hudson's, and Lord & Taylor). For the historian of American jewellery retailing, Field's is one of the principal Midwestern outlets through which both American and European fine jewellery reached the upper-middle and upper Midwest market across the late 19th and 20th centuries. Pieces sold through Field's appear regularly in American estate jewellery and at auction; the Marshall Field & Co. mark is well-recognised in the American jewellery trade.
In the trade
For dealers handling estate American jewellery from the late 19th and 20th centuries, the Marshall Field & Co. mark is a consistent provenance indicator and adds modest premium to pieces of comparable quality without retailer attribution. The store's archives are held at the Chicago History Museum and at the Newberry Library, and are useful for dating and attribution research.