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An engraver has long been a craft associated with fine jewelry, behind the many scenes of Anne Dale Jeweler is my incredible and talented husband, Mike Dale. He is the Master Jeweler responsible for many of our one-of-a-kind creations. Over thirty years his unique and rare skill as a goldsmith and diamond setter reflects the rich history of his New Orleans family. A family of master artist and New Orleans engraver.

In the early 1900’s, Arthur C. Dale (Michael’s grandfather) a photo-engraver was the shop foreman for the New Orleans Engraving and Photo-etching Company. French artist and master engraver Francois Bildstein (1855-1935) (Michael’s great-great-uncle) began training Arthur as an apprentice at the young age of sixteen in 1899.

Bildstein is credited for his art work and engravings in “The Mascot” a historical New Orleans publication from 1882 to 1897.

Bildstein’s images documented post civil war New Orleans, today his photo-engravings are part of The New Orleans Historical Collection one engraving is considered to be the first image of a jazz band while another depicts the largest mass lynching in United States history after the killing of New Orleans Police Chief Hennessy.

Local artist, photographer and history buff Sally Asher has done a series of lectures on “The Mascot” and Francois Bildstein’s engravings as she prepares to write a book on the subject. She presented Michael with an original framed silk screen of a Francois Bildstein drawing from the 1800’s of a young lady on a bike riding down Saint Charles Avenue.

You can find “New Orleans” on a map bordered by the 17th street canal, Lake Pontchartrain, the mighty Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.You will also find New Orleans in the hearts of the Louisiana people and those around the world who have experienced it … Jazz, Mardi Gras, The French Quarter, Creole and Cajun Cuisine.

But My New Orleans is more. It is bigger.

The Big Easy goes beyond the borderlines of this great city. It is always a part of me wherever I go.

My New Orleans goes north up the Mississippi River to Natchez, strung together by mighty Oak Trees, Spanish Moss and a path of majestic plantation homes from an era gone by.

My New Orleans goes east where my family vacationed on the sandy white beaches of Waveland, Gulfport and Biloxi.

My New Orleans goes south through the bayous and swamps, where as a young girl my father would take me fishing, down the Mississippi Delta and to the Gulf of Mexico.

My New Orleans gets its spice from the west through Baton Rouge and to the heart of Acadia (Cajuns)……….Lafayette.

My New Orleans is like a good gumbo with necessary ingredients to a recipe rich in culture.

A gumbo that is stirred by the people where our southern hospitality welcomes each ingredient to melt into the other, to give it the flavor of something you will always take with you wherever you go.Once you taste it… You will know what it means to love New Orleans.

That’s my home… that’s My New Orleans.

That’s why I have created this design to remind everyone in our surrounding cities including the coastal region and beyond, much like the Mississippi River, our bloodline flows beyond the borders of this great city.

It is Our New Orleans.

It belongs to everyone.

by Anne Dale