Posted on November 8, 2010 by admin

Minster Jewelers
Special Announcement

Will Minster, Master Jeweler and owner of Minster Jewelers on 9th Street in Wilmington, has announced that he is closing his store permanently.

Minster has owned and operated the store since 1985 with his wife, Kelly. He is a fourth generation jeweler, following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, Jacob John Minster. Jacob John opened the family business as a watchmaker and jeweler in 1895 at 112 E. Main St., in Elkton Maryland, after purchasing the business from a Wilmington family in business since 1802.

The store will officially close on December 24, 2010. Minster plans to incorporate inventory and staff into the Minster Jewelers location in Newark Shopping Center, which is owned and operated by his mother, Marilyn.

“It’s a bit like a family reunion,” says Minster of the move. “And we are optimistic that our loyal downtown Wilmington customers will visit us in our new location.”

Minster has earned a reputation for his inventory of fine jewelry, bridal collections and in-store personal service, as well as contemporary fashion forward jewelry from brands such as Elle and Lorenzo. “We added contemporary brands to help our customers accessorize affordably with quality products,” says Minster, “and this inventory will be easy to incorporate into the Newark location.”

Minster adds that his passion has always been creative custom jewelry design, and he will continue to provide this service to customers with long standing relationships with the family business. “Our most loyal friends count on us to help them get custom pieces from our workbench to their front door, wherever they are in the world.” With the larger shop and additional jewelers in the Newark store Minster plans to expand this service.

Minster’s Jewelers is located at 218 W. 9th St., Wilmington. For more information, please contact Will Minster directly.

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Delaware business: From jewelry veteran, a fresh point of view

Posted on August 17, 2010 by admin

In new collection, 79-year-old businesswoman taps her passion for art

By PAM GEORGE • Special to The News Journal • April 22, 2010

When it comes to Minster’s of Newark, Marilyn Minster is all business. “I’m very logical and very matter of fact,” said Minster, who opened the store in the Newark Shopping Center in 1955.

With her shoot-from-the-hip approach and her insistence on protocol, it is easy to see why her father-in-law groomed Minster to run the jewelry store and repair shop, which was founded in 1895 in Elkton, Md., by Jacob John Minster.

But the businesswoman has an artistic side, which she’s carefully nurtured over the years. “I’ve always painted, always sketched and always been interested in art,” said Minster, who will turn 80 in June.

Now she has merged her passion for art and the jewelry business with the official debut April 9 of Marilyn Minster’s Designs, a line of pendants, earrings and bracelets available at her store in Newark and her son Will’s store in Wilmington (the Elkton store closed in 1986).

Designing jewelry is nothing new for Minster, who often turns ideas from clients into custom jewelry. But the line represents her own ideas, not those spurred by her clients or her family.

The marriage between her art and the jewelry business was a long time coming. Born in Hagerstown, Md., Minster’s family moved to Elkton when she was approaching adolescence. She graduated from high school in 1948, and on full scholarship she enrolled in the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where she earned a degree in interior design.

She traveled to Baltimore from Elkton via train. “Back then, the trains stopped at every cow pasture,” she recalled. “I caught the train at 5:30 a.m. and did not get home until 7 p.m. at night.”

Later, she married into the Minster family, which tossed her into the jewelry business. “I was told by my father-in-law that I would run the store,” Minster said. “He was farsighted.”

Minster never stopped working, even after having three children: Alice, Will and Melissa. The family initially lived over the Elkton store. “It was fun,” she recalled. “The children were always underfoot, and Will would bring his friends over to play basketball at my office . It was an interesting life.”

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