Bradford House Antiques LLC: is our parent company. Originally we had two stores side by side. Bradford House Antiques was our Antique Silver shop. A few years ago we were able to break through the walls and combine the locations. The Bradford House name was chosen to honor Bill and Harriet Kaschube. They were Sandra’s parents, as well as Jeff’s good friends. During our formative years we were helped and encouraged at every turn by these two dedicated collectors. Their home was our sanctuary and, for many years, our base of operations when buying in the American Midwest. They resided in Bradford, PA in a magnificent house filled with collections of everything from Chinese porcelains and enamels, straight razors, fossils, mineral core samples, books, stamps, and miniature vases, to Art Glass. Hence our name ­-- Bradford House Antiques.

Sandra Russak: Sandra has been an antiques dealer since 1989 and an avid collector all her life. The daughter of archeologists, she comes by her passion for preserving and researching the past naturally. Her special interests are Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau jewelry and paintings; she contributes to the selection of Antique Jewelry for the shop. She also decorates our famous holiday windows with items from her own extensive collection. Sandra is a superb musician and an avid cook who reads cookbooks like other folks read novels. She also has a keen interest in religious philosophy and women’s roles in historic and modern religion. She and Jeff started Bradford House Antiques 20 years ago.

Jeff Russak: Jeff’s main field of expertise is Antique and 20th Century Jewelry. He is also knowledgeable about gemstones, silver, and decorative objects. Sandra and he started their antique business in the small flea markets, then graduated to booths in antique shows of all sizes, as well as many group shops. Fifteen years ago Sandra and he rented their first shop in Litchfield, CT. Jeff is a member of the American Society of Jewelry Historians, The Jeweler’s Vigilance Committee, The New York Silver Society, and numerous other associations. He is in demand as a speaker on Antique Jewelry and guest appraiser of jewelry for charity events. Also an avid musician, Jeff plays several instruments and enjoys touring on his BMW motorcycle. Jeff and Sandra are married.

Jeff Russak’s early jewelry and Antique experiences: Jeff has been involved in antiques all his life. A third generation dealer, he gained his appreciation for antiques at his grandmother’s knee, (she had a huge bookstore and three antique shops, as well as her own auctioneer). His earliest memories are of sitting in her shop display windows as a toddler as if it was a playpen. As a child his favorite school vacations were spent exploring the stuff stored in her 15 room Victorian home. “It was like Aladdin’s cave! I remember one closet was filled with porcelain and the chest at the end of the main staircase was packed with silver and small boxes. If I was good we could unpack a box from the attic after dinner.” She loved books most of all and at the height of her career was the largest Antiquarian book dealer in the country. Jeff’s father was a unique individual who had a strong love of jewelry. One of Jeff’s fondest memories was going to Amsterdam with his father at age four to buy Mom the promised engagement ring (they were too poor to afford one when first married). Living at that time in Germany, (Dad was a captain in the American army), Jeff remembers riding along the tops of verdant dikes past huge bundles of bright tulips in his father’s Morgan, (an open top sports car). The diamond merchants were very patient with the young child’s curiosity about the fantastic gems. It left a deep impression -- the cool dark quiet broken by brilliant shafts of light surrounding the cutter’s workbenches -- this is how Jeff remembers the diamond houses. They were serious silent places where it seemed to a child that the stern faced men were magically creating beauty from the bright light itself. Later, in America, Jeff’s father took him to Jose Grant, a wonderful jeweler in Stamford, Connecticut. There at nine he had his first taste of what the jeweler’s art was all about. It was an astonishing place where there was nothing ready-made to buy. You had to talk to the goldsmiths and describe what you wanted, then pick the gemstones you wanted to use. A few weeks later, you would go and look at what they had done (often a couple of versions if they were intrigued by your project). Jeff’s father’s taste for originality and quality formed an approach to jewelry in Jeff’s mind that would become the cornerstone for our buying methodology.

Penny: Penny joined us in the year 2001. A devotee of antique jewelry and a collector of female portraits, Penny lends her unique taste and expertise to the selection process of our jewelry as well as managing client relations and taking many of the photographs you see on this site. Her positive demeanor and principled conduct helps to guide and inform our staff. She is a jazz aficionado and loves vintage automobiles.