New York / New York / United States
After a brief job as a mechanic for the army during WWI, he went to work at French Tinsel Company in Manhattan, the main product being metal threads in an array of styles, colors and sizes also known as Tinsel, and made in France. Its not surprising that he gravitated towards threads, after all his father was a tailor. Metal thread, however, was an unusual choice for an ambitious young man to start his career with. Years passed and Arch J. Bergoffen, my grandfather purchased the company in 1933, changed the name and thus began Tinsel Trading Company. During WWII, his biggest client turned out to be the U.S. government. Unable to import metal threads themselves for uniforms, they relied on my grandfather, who had been warehousing thousands and thousands of spools for years. To this day there remains a large amount of this inventory in the basement, all on the manufacturers original wooden spools, paper wrapped with gold labels. Many of them are still in the wooden crates they arrived in from France, never having been opened in over 70 years. After the war it was necessary to expand and offer a wider variety of embellishments. Arch or Mr. B as he was known, would stay in metals but now it would include trims, tassels, fringes, cords, fabrics and wonders in between. As long as it was made of real metal threads, whether gold, silver or a rainbow of metallic colors, he would collect it and sell it. When I was 11 years old, I started my career working at the brand new location of Tinsel Trading Co Previously it had been wholesale only, in a 4th floor loft on on 36th St, but in 1969 he moved to a storefront, where he would now sell retail as well. The address was 47 West 38th St., where the business has been ever since. I would travel by subway with my older brother from Queens to Manhattan by subway, on Saturdays to help out. Throughout high school and college I worked at every opportunity I could, learning as much as possible about the business. As I soon realized, it was a family rite of passage to work for TTC. My father worked for my grandfather, his new father- in- law, for several years. As a young adult and when the kids were in school, my mother worked for her father. In their teen years my 2 brothers went to work alongside Poppa. Fast forward to the present & my 2 nephews can also list Tinsel Trading Company on their resumes. Four generations of my family have all participated in the evolution of TTC. As the years went by, my grandfather found out that not everyone was interested in metal trims. He needed more then just his collection of amazing 1920s metal threads, tassels, appliques, fringes and fabrics to accommodate his retail business. He began to accrue everything he could find, from soup to nuts, that was made before 1960. Somehow word got out, and he never had to travel further then the front door. Everyone who had old stuff lying around, much of it from outside the U.S., had heard about this crazy guy on 38th St. who would buy almost anything as long as it was old. Little did they know that their supposed junk was gold to my grandfather. He bought ribbons, buttons, tassels, fringes, raffia ornaments and anything else that attracted him ( even Brazilian beetles from the 1930s ) in all colors and fibers. If it remotely fit into his idea of a creative decorative item, he wanted it. Hundreds of boxes arrived, many unopened, month after month, year after year. One piece of each item would be put on a shelf to sell, but the rest went into the basement, piling one box on top of another, blocking aisles and passageways and mostly sitting unopened and unmarked for years and years. As some of you know, my grandfather was a pack rat and thank goodness he was.
