THE JEWEL OF MAPLEWOOD VILLAGE By Rose Bennett Gilbert

Beacon Jewelers keeps shining 57 years later

Tony Giasullo and his daughter Joanne Santangelo at their store, Beacon Jewelers, in Maplewood Village.

Anthony Giasullo, owner and master creative at Beacon Jewelers in Maplewood, was born into the jewelry industry and has the photos to prove it. Ask and he’ll bring them out: large, framed photos of the entire staff of Shiman Mfg. Co., one of some three dozen manufacturers that once combined to make Newark the jewelry capital of the world.

There, in the upper left of the photo sits baby Tony between his mother and father, both of them involved in the precious metals business that flourished in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. In the photo, it’s 1941, and Tony is 3 years old. His father, trained in watchmaking, was already laying plans to create his own jewelry store in East Orange, on Main Street, right by the old Beacon Hill Theater, which lent its name to the new enterprise.

Tony inspects a diamond ring. A special device enables him to tell the difference between a lab created stone and a real diamond.

Years later, Tony would also borrow the name for his own Beacon Jewelers, a fixture in downtown Maplewood since October 1968. Never mind that he had flirted with the idea of a different career. He even spent three years at NYU, studying advertising. “But I knew all along what I was going to be: a jeweler.” Growing up, he worked side-by-side with his father, who built a kid-sized jeweler’s bench for little Tony. “It’s a passion.” The only surprise in his decision was its location: Maplewood. “I didn’t even know Maplewood existed,” he chuckles. “We were christening baby daughter Joanne, and I came here looking for wine for the party.” Tony was attracted, he said, because Maplewood was “quiet and close.” (They were then living in Vailsburg.)

He soon came back with plans he’d drawn up himself for his Beacon Jewelers. “My dad had Beacon, East Orange. I had Beacon, Maplewood,” he said. It, too, is a family operation. Tony presides over the workroom in the back. “My sister and I grew up in this workroom,” says daughter Joanne Santangelo. Now she minds the store out front.

For years that had been the province of her mother, Johanna Giasullo, Tony’s wife of 54 years and a welcoming presence in the showroom until her death in 2019. For anyone who loves beautiful things, it’s a destination showroom. Windows sparkle with diamonds, gold, pearls and other luxuries, including Tony’s signature Beaconbrand watches. The “Survivor” watch features a band made of parachute cloth: “Unravel it after you land and you have a tent,” Tony explains. Seriously? Tony just flashes his engaging smile.

Speaking of engagements, we asked how many brides have flaunted Beacon diamond engagement rings during his nearly 60 years in business. Tony won’t hazard a guess, but he does have cautionary advice for 21st century bridesto-be: Be aware that science has now come up with faux diamonds that look so much like the real thing that law requires them to carry marking identifying them as lab-created stones. “I can’t tell the real from the faux just by looking,” he confides. Ergo, he now brandishes a device like a little light gun that flashes green when the stone’s legit and red when it was born in a lab. Lacking such a truth-telling device, anyone can easily tell the difference just by checking the price tag: a good-sized natural diamond costs, say, $30,000 to $40,000. Its lab-made lookalike costs $3,000 or $4,000. “That’s OK if her husband-to-be tells her in advance that the stone in her engagement ring was made in a lab, not by Mother Nature,” Tony advises. “If she finds out later that he gave her a fake diamond, she might think he’s never been truthful with her about other things.”

Joanne Santangelo spent a lot of time as a child in the store’s workroom. She now minds the front of the store.

Faux jewels do have a legitimate place in some lucky women’s wardrobes, Tony points out. One customer keeps her very real $100,000 emerald-cut diamond safe in a bank vault while she wears its lab-made twin to festive occasions. Tony’s motto could be, “If you’ve got it, wear it.” If you “don’t got it yet,” Beacon Jewelers maintains a “Wish Box” for customers, especially brides-to-be and wannabes. “She picks it out, and he comes in and buys it,” Joanne says. “We also have fewer returns that way.” In another way, Tony excels in bringing old pieces of jewelry back in fashion. “Why leave your heirlooms in a drawer?” he asks.

Do you ever wear your great-aunt’s diamond brooch? Tony may take a look and see the potential for making two elegant rings from its diamonds. He may even add aquamarines as a grace note. Once he recreated a lost ruby ring to match one a customer’s grandmother was wearing in a family portrait. Tony says he undertakes about a half-dozen such custom assignments every month, each one requiring about two months to conceive and complete. Each one is a masterwork in precious metals and stones. But as Tony points out, “Jewelry is not just to be worn.” Why not put a special piece in a picture frame or shadow box? One customer created a family memorial under the top of a glass coffee table he had made. He showcased interesting things such as his grandfather’s pocket knife. “The idea,” Tony emphasizes, “is to show off things you really enjoy.”

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Like everyone else who passes the corner of Maplewood Avenue and Baker Street in downtown Maplewood, journalist Rose Bennett Gilbert can often be caught eyeing all that glitters in the windows of Beacon Jewelers.