Marshall Littman, Depression-era jeweler, among the last of his kind on Sansom Street, dies at 98

Marshall Littman, 98, formerly of Philadelphia, a Depression-era jeweler who was among the last of his generation to operate a business on Jewelers’ Row, died Saturday, Feb. 22, of complications from dementia at a hospice in Boynton Beach, Fla.

Mr. Littman was born in Philadelphia in 1921. According to a 2016 oral history given to the Hidden City blog by his grandson Joshua M. Hyman, times were tough for the Littman family during the Great Depression.

To survive, Mr. Littman’s father, Ruben, sent the boy and his mother, Sarah, to live with family in a boarding house at Fourth and Locust Streets. Ruben went door-to-door collecting scrap metal and selling it to buy goods that he then peddled on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City.

At age 16, Mr. Littman got a job as a runner for a poker game in the basement of 732 Sansom St., on Jewelers’ Row.

“Guys would want cigars or cigarettes or a sandwich, or whatever,” said Hyman, a graduate gemologist on Sansom Street. “My grandfather would go get these things during the game.”

In 1939, Marty Kimmal, a poker player and Sansom Street jeweler, offered Mr. Littman, then 18, an apprenticeship so that he become a bench jeweler — one who makes jewelry by hand sitting at a bench. He accepted, becoming so adept at the craft that by the time he was 20, Mr. Littman was already a partner in his own business.

When the partnership ended, he left briefly to open a boutique on the boardwalk in Wildwood. But Mr. Littman’s wife, Pearl, whom he married in 1942, decided he should become a bench jeweler again.

They returned to Jewelers’ Row and went into business in 1954 as Marshall Littman Manufacturing Jewelers Inc. The company was reorganized in 1999 as Graystar Jewelers with offices at 740 Sansom St.

Mr. Littman made jewelry to be sold at retail stores throughout the region, while his wife ran the business side of the company. Over the next 40 years, the couple moved into 730 Sansom St., and at one point had 11 employees.

“Marshall had an intense desire to make the finest platinum and gold jewelry available,” said son-in-law Martin Hyman. “He hired many jewelers to work in his company who all went on to open their own jewelry shops in the Philadelphia area.”

According to photos in Temple University Libraries Urban Archives, a popular jewelry style in the early 1940s was platinum-and-diamond pins and necklace centers. Mr. Littman excelled in designing and making the one-of-a-kind pins.

After his daughter, Fran Hyman, and her husband, Martin, joined the company in the early 1960s, the company sold diamond engagement rings and jewelry with colored gemstones to retailers across the country. Many carried the Marshall Littman trademark.

In 1987, the Littmans sold the business to Fran and Martin Hyman. But the economy hit a downturn, and the business declined. Cheaper imports were flowing into the United States from Asia. The Hymans closed Marshall Littman Manufacturing Jewelers Inc., and opened Graystar to produce one-of-a-kind pieces. Graystar was sold in 2009.

His family described Mr. Littman as scrupulously honest, once going back to a water-ice vendor on South Street when he was given too much change. “My sons got to see their grandfather doing that,” Martin Hyman said.

When not working, Mr. Littman enjoyed painting and sculpting as a student of the Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. He was an avid golfer at the Flourtown Country Club.

Mr. Littman and his wife retired and moved to Florida in 2009. She died in 2012.

In addition to his daughter, Fran, he is survived by four grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and a great-great-grandson. Three of the four grandchildren work in the jewelry business.

Funeral services on Thursday, Feb. 27, are private.

Memorial donations may be made to Papanicolaou Corps for Cancer Research, 1191 East Newport Center Dr., #107, Deerfield Beach, Fla. 33442.