I recently bought an etching depicting Market St., 1902. The etching was done by Irvine & Jachens. Does anyone know the history of these two? I know they did mostly Police & fire Dept. badges, but I am curious to find out more info.

-- sarah wells (sarahwphoto@mindspring.com), January 10, 2003

Answers

They are listed in the 1923 directory at 1027 Market.

Good luck in your research.

-- Kurt Iversen (iversenk@aol.com), January 11, 2003.

When I plugged "Irvine & Jachens" into google, I got a long, long list of police and fire department collectibles websites. Many of those may contain message boards and historical information. There were a lot of price guides, too.

There's also a reference to Irvine & Jachens being on Mission Street in the twenties or thirties. Here's their current address:

Irvine & Jachens Incorporated 6700 Mission St Daly City, CA 94014-2031 Phone: (650) 755-4715

-- Rosa (rosadebon@yahoo.com), January 11, 2003.

They make badges for many of the departments on the peninsula. Their main competition is the Ed Jones Company in Oakland. I&J makes really nice badges. Wore one for years. Jones stuff seems cheap anymore.

-- mdmf (ME@you.net), January 19, 2003.

Yes, It's our family business. We started business in 1886 in S.F. The earlist catalog I have is marked 1904. We made badges, and in the 1930's we started making belt buckles. The company was owned by Christian & Herman Stegman. They purchased the company from I&J in the early 1900's. Very little is known of the original owners. What you have is more than likely a catalog cover. The original art work for the 1902 cover. The company still makes badges in Daly City. The company split in two in the late 60's. One brother taking the bagdes and one brother taking the buckles. The buckle company is called Comstock Silversmiths. These brothers were Chris Stegmans sons. Now the company has Chris' grandsons working for both the badges I&J, and for the buckles, Comstock. I would love to see the picture, I bet I could tell who did the art work. Thanks Donna Stegman

-- Donna Stegman (dstegman@aol.com), March 24, 2003.

Hello Everyone.

I am avid collector of dept issue U.S. State Police & State Highway Patrol badges for over 6 years now, trying to complete collection of all 50 SP/HP State Agencies. I am looking for several State Police \ Highway Patrol badges that made by Irvine & Jachens such as Montana Highway Patrol and Wyoming Highway Patrol.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

You can visit my website below and my collection.

http://swatmp0.tripod.com/Police1.htm

-- Alex Cruise (sashac@bezeqint.net), November 24, 2003.

Donna Stegman failed to mention, that there is a third brother. His name is Chester Stegamn. He owns The Ed Jones Company in Berkeley Ca. Formaly in Oakland. He bought the EJ Co., when the three brothers split up.

-- Hugo Hake Jr. (hhjr@aol.com), January 13, 2005.