Nina Silberstein, who passed away on March 6 at the age of 103, spent her career at jeweler David Webb, from 1948 to 2010. She was not, however, your typical company girl. Silberstein was a force of nature: strong, opinionated, determined and focused — in other words, all the ingredients of a leader.
When David Webb and Antoinette Quilleret formed the company in New York in 1948, they hired Silberstein as a bookkeeper. As a collegial relationship and friendship developed, her responsibilities expanded; on Webb’s early death at age 50 in 1975, she became president. It was a singular achievement, making Silberstein the first woman in the United States to run a major jewelry company. It was a propitious time; women’s roles were expanding throughout industry and the arts across the country.
As she once remarked, “I cared about people. I didn’t treat them like objects, I treated them like human beings. I hear from a lot of people — the customers call me, what can I tell you? It was my business, and the customers were friends.”
Kevin Parker, who has been with the company since 1987 and was very close with Silberstein, remembers her telling him, “I was a woman in business long before it became fashionable.” The irony, he adds, is that the bankers who lent her money for the business wouldn’t take her to dine in their private clubs.
Along with her family, Silberstein ran David Webb with verve and panache until 2010, when Mark Emanuel, Robert Sadian and Sima Ghadamian purchased the company.
“Nina wore David Webb jewelry from morning to night, knowing that she was the standard-bearer of a jewelry art form that was distinct and beautiful,” Emanuel recalls. “It was her badge of honor. Nina was emblematic of the David Webb woman: stylish, cultured and self-possessed. Having run the company for 35 years after Webb’s death, she was extraordinary by all measures.”
As Silberstein remarked only a couple of years ago, “David Webb was my life.” She also taught Webb, an aspiring home cook, how to make borscht.
Main image: Nina Silberstein speaking with Rudy Reiter, foreman of the David Webb workshop, circa 1975-76. (David Webb Archives)
