Joseph's Ring and the Gold Plates

by John P. Pratt
19 Dec 2020, 13 Light (SR), Lights (Toltec), End Lights (PH), 0 Creation (UV), Solstice (E)

©2020 by John P. Pratt. All rights Reserved.

Index, Home

Contents

1. Traditional History 2. Revealed History 2.1 Moroni's Ring 2.2 Verification of Plates 2.3 Ring Found 2.4 My Witness 3. Conclusion Addendum 1 Addendum 2 Notes

Evidence is presented that Joseph Smith's gold ring was a replica of Moroni's ring. That original ring was to be used to verify the Plates of Mormon.

Fig. 1. Joseph Smith's ring (above), with ellipse enhanced (below).

The Prophet Joseph Smith wore a gold ring which he used in a famous sermon near the end of his life wherein he used it to compare to eternity, pointing out that the circle of a ring has no beginning nor end and that it is the same for the eternal intelligence of mankind.[1] That ring was handed down through his heirs, and eventually a photo of it was included in a photographic summary of several artifacts from the Prophet in a 1984 article in the Ensign magazine[2] (see Figure 1, taken from that article). The upper part of that figure is a photograph of the ring; the lower part has had the ellipse in the center emphasized in black in order to show it more clearly. Now replicas of that ring are sold in many locations (see Figure 2[3]) in commemoration of the Prophet.

After reviewing the scanty history of this ring from traditional sources, this article summarizes the claims made by the Reborn LDS Church that Joseph's ring (shown in Figure 1) was actually a replica of Moroni's ring which was given to Joseph Smith with the gold Plates of Mormon, to be used to verify the authenticity of the plates at a future date. It is claimed that Moroni's ring was handed down to Joseph's descendant, Joseph Fredrick Smith, who did indeed use the ring for that purpose. Moreover, that ring is now in the possession of Mauricio, the seer who translated the first part of the sealed plates. It has been shown to me to examine and verify that the ring does indeed match the impression on the last of the unsealed plates. The purpose of the ring to authenticate the Plates of Mormon has been fulfilled!

This history is not offered as a "proof" of the authenticity of the plates, but more to record the history as understood by several witnesses whose credibility in my opinion is beyond reproach. It is also to set the record straight because said Joseph F. Smith has since totally dissociated himself from the Brazilian church and has denied ever having known of Moroni's ring, let alone having used it to verify the authenticity of the plates.

"The Prophet Joseph's gold ring. This ring probably dates from the Nauvoo period and may have been the ring he used in the April 1844 King Follett sermon to illustrate the eternal nature of man. (See Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 354.) Sometime after the Prophet's martyrdom in 1844, Emma Smith gave the ring to Alexander Hale Smith, one of their sons. (Photography by Gary Plowman; shown courtesy of Glaud Leslie Smith, a great-grandson of Joseph and Emma Smith.)"

The photography mentioned in that quotation is the upper photo in Figure 1, so credit is given to Gary Plowman for that important photo. Also, the portrait of Joseph Smith in Figure 2, which shows him wearing a ring, was taken from a daguerreotype (early type of photograph) of him made in December 1839 or January 1840, and is thought to be perhaps the only actual likeness of him taken.[3]

The fact that the description of the ring shown in Figure 2, being virtually identical on all websites found in my research where the ring is sold, shows that this history was taken directly from the Ensign article just quoted. That article may be the only history of the ring extant. It apparently was not mentioned anywhere in Church history before the Nauvoo period (beginning in 1840).

With that very sketchy usual history, let us now turn to get what I now believe to be "the rest of the story."

2. Revealed History

The following is my understanding of what was explained to both Steve Woodby and me by the seer Mauricio A. Berger in his home in Brazil on Wed 18 Nov 2020 when we were both visiting with him before the general conference to be held the following weekend. At that time none of the three of us knew that Steve and I would be called to counselors in the First Presidency on Sat 21 Nov 2020 during Mauricio's sermon.

Subsequently, Mauricio has asked me to write this article explaining his understanding about the ring and its history and importance in authenticating the Plates of Mormon. I have submitted this article to him and to Steve Woodby who have approved it, so that it represents our mutual agreement of Mauricio's understanding of the history of the ring. Thus, this article can be considered as representing the current views of the First Presidency of the Church.

2.1 Moroni's Ring

Mauricio explained to Steve and me that the Angel Moroni gave a gold ring with a black stone in it to Joseph Smith at the same time he gave him the Plates of Mormon. Later, when Joseph was running with the plates from an attacker,[4] he fell and broke the stone in the ring. Joseph knew the ring was precious and important so he did not wear it, but kept it safe.

Joseph F. Smith and me.

Late in 1839 when Joseph was preaching in Philadelphia,[5] Joseph went to a jeweler with two requests. One request was to repair the stone in the ring, and the other was to create a similar replica of the ring that he could wear every day without fear of losing or breaking something precious.

Because this information was given by revelation, it seems important to include details which could be verified by future research. The name of the jeweler was James Emott Caldwell and his jewelry store was on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Moreover, it was revealed that Mr. Caldwell carved two grooves in order to better hold the stone in the center. He also worked on the stone somewhat to better fit the grooves he had made.

Thus, the ring that Joseph wore in Nauvoo was only a replica of Moroni's ring. It is shown in Figure 1, where it seen that its only distinguishing feature is the ellipse which was engraved on it. There was no stone in it. To avoid confusion, in this article the two rings are referred to as Joseph's ring (the replica without a stone) and Moroni's ring (the original with a stone).

Moroni's ring was inherited by Joseph's son Alexander, and Joseph's ring was also inherited by the family. The photo in Figure 1 is of the replica (Joseph's ring). Note that the only feature on Joseph's ring is the engraved oval (or ellipse), which is displayed prominently in the copies of it sold popularly, as shown in Figure 2.

Moroni's ring was handed down from father to son until it arrived in the hands of Joseph Fredrick Smith, the great grandson of Joseph, who lives in Missouri. After the LDS Church headquartered in Utah had refused to supply eight men to become witnesses of the plates, the Angel Moroni instructed Mauricio to contact Joseph F. Smith and request that both he and one other man come to Brazil to view the gold Plates of Mormon. Joseph F. Smith brought Robert Moore in October 2017 and they were allowed to become witnesses of the plates, the interpreters, and the sword of Laban. They were instructed to find six more men to become, with them, a set of eight witnesses of the plates, even as there had been eight witnesses of the Plates of Mormon in the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith. That occurred, and on Sun 4 Mar 2018 the eight witnesses were allowed to see and handle the plates. They also witnessed the breaking of seals on the sealed portion, for Mauricio to translate. All gave their names at that time to witness to the world that Mauricio indeed had golden plates.

2.2 Verification of Plates

Fig. 3. Tutankhamun signet ring.
(Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Something very important happened in that first meeting in 2017 when Joseph F. Smith and Robert Moore first came to Brazil. Joseph had brought with him Moroni's ring, which he had inherited. He considered it very precious and did not want anyone to know he had it, including even Robert Moore. Apparently the secret had been handed down that the ring had been used like a signet ring and pressed into the last plate of the unsealed plates from which the Book of Mormon had been translated to leave a mark which would match only that very ring. That time-honored authentication method[6] provides an ideal technique to establish the authenticity of the plates.

It has not been clear whether that impression into the plates was made by the Prophet Joseph himself or whether it had been done by Moroni. My personal opinion (JPP) is that it is most likely that the impression was made by Moroni himself, even as ancient scripture scrolls were sealed with sealing wax with an impression therein made by a signet ring or other identifying seal of authenticity. Signet rings have been used since ancient Egypt (see Figure 3[7]) to authenticate the source of important documents, so it would have been natural for Moroni to use such a procedure, adapted to gold plates.

Thus, a meeting was held in which Joseph F. Smith met with Mauricio A. Berger and two of the three primary witnesses: Joni Batista and Valdeci Machado. Joseph knew just what to do and verified that Moroni's ring did indeed fit the impression on the last of the unsealed plates. At that time, none of sealed plates had been unsealed. That would happen in March 2018 in the presence of Mauricio, the three witnesses and all eight of the other witnesses.

Thus, there were three witnesses in Brazil who were present when Joseph verified the authenticity of Plates of Mormon by fitting Moroni's ring into the impression, which had apparently been put there just for that very moment! It was truly a joyful occasion for all to witness this long awaited event! It also established that it had been known that there would be a need to authenticate the plates after the days of Joseph Smith and before the Second Coming.

William Shakespeare's signet ring.
(Courtesy of shakespeare.org.uk.)

When the translation of the content of The Sealed Book into both Portuguese and English was published in March of 2019, some of the eight witnesses withdrew their support and were replaced with new witnesses. Interestingly, some of their objections were addressed in my book review two months after its publication.[8] At first Joseph F. Smith held firmly to his witness of the plates, but he has apparently never publicly mentioned his private viewing with the ring to verify authenticity, which he must have wanted to keep secret. Later, when expanded gospel doctrines were revealed, Joseph F. Smith renounced all connections with the Church in Brazil, calling it a "cult". Then on Thu 23 Jan 2020 he issued a statement declaring that without his consent the Church in Brazil has claimed that he used his great grandfather's ring to identify the validity of the plates, referring to all such as lies and misinformation.[9] It is interesting that he explicitly stated that the lies were made without his consent! Would anyone give permission to lie about them? Isn't it more likely that his secret truth, rather than a lie, was told without his consent?

2.3 Ring Found

Fig. 4. Moroni's ring found!

In April 2020, the Church in Brazil received intelligence from the apostle Peter, who had been tutoring Mauricio, that Joseph F. Smith had actually lost his ring while in Mauricio's home in 2017. While a group of Church leaders were searching the home for the ring, John Vendemiatti, the Church Patriarch, had a vision of just where the ring was within the couch, in a place where it was stuck in the framework, where it was very difficult to access and would not have been dislodged when vacuuming between the cushions. Sure enough, it was there, and an official statement was released about the finding of the ring, which Joseph F. Smith had already claimed was not his and that he did not know anything about it. My translation of that statement reads in part as follows:

Special Testimony of the Finding of the Lord's Signet Ring:

On April 16, 2020, Simon Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ and one of the ministering angels (D&C 7:5,7), ministered to us (Patriarch John Vendemiatti, to the three witnesses, Joni C. Batista, Wagner Zeppenfeld & Valdeci Machado; and Sister Renee Whitefield), giving guidance on the provenance and location of the alleged ring that belonged to Joseph Smith in the early days of the restoration, which Mauricio had also witnessed the use of to validate the Plates of Mormon, through Joseph Smith's great grandson, Joseph Fredrick Smith, when he was in Caxias do Sul, Brazil, who used the ring to fit a mark that exists on one of the plates, which he has recently vehemently and publicly denied even being aware of such a ring, in addition to declaring that he never even heard of it....

On today's date, April 16, 2020, we, by the grace of God and his son Jesus Christ, went to the home of Mauricio A. Berger, reported the information we had received and started the search to find the ring, after brothers Joni and Wagner checked one of the sofas, the Patriarch had a vision and went directly to a certain place on that same sofa and precisely found the said ring: a golden ring, with an inlaid black stone, having the appearance of being very old due to the micro grooves in the metal, apparently forged manually because of imperfections, at the top a circle and inside the circle a stone with two lateral grooves where it was used to attach the sliver of stone to the center, as Peter described in his ministry. The initials "J" and "S" are engraved on the inside of the ring.

Mauricio, clearly moved, his eyes filled with tears, Joni Batista and Valdeci Machado moved, embraced and praised God. After that, everyone examined the ring in detail, and we leave to the world the testimony of what we saw.

We bear solemn testimony before God, angels and men that Mauricio Berger has not given any indication of knowing that for three years this ring was hidden in the gap of his sofa or even that it was at his home. His relieved face was clear as was his emotion and surprise. We also testify that the ring was found as described by Peter. The Spirit of God has been poured out, we have been blessed with a strong and sweet Holy Spirit of God and we can thus testify to the world what we have seen and felt....

We seal this testimony and give our names to the world so that the world will know that God keeps His promises and honors his elect.

In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

(signed) Joni C. Batista, Renee Whitefield, João Vendemiatti, Valdeci Machado, Wagner Zeppenfeld

2.4 My Witness

Mauricio shows plates to Steve.

After Steve Woodby and I had been ordained to be high priests and set apart as counselors in the First Presidency,[10] we learned that the Church was again in possession of the Plates of Mormon because Mauricio is still translating the second and last part of the sealed plates to come forth at this time, because the bulk of the plates are still sealed and will only come forth by the Savior Himself when He comes to those who believe His words. Steve humbly asked if he might also become a witness of the plates. The answer was affirmative.

After some time the plates were brought from where they had been hidden, so that both Steve and I could examine the plates. This being his first time seeing them, he was in shock, whereas I could look for some things which I had not noticed in my first examination a year ago.[11]

Fig. 5. Light spots from interpreter.

Mauricio also had the interpreter stones. He held one near the wall, while shining light through it from his phone flashlight to display several spots of light. I took the photo of those six spots, visible in Figure 5, which includes Mauricio's hand and the shadow of his phone. In his Preface to The Sealed Book, he describes how when he looked through both of the interpreter stones that various possible translations words would appear at those places from which he chose what felt like the best word.

When I had looked at the plates before, I did not see any characters on any plates which had been rendered more visible by having been filled in with black ink-like stain of some kind. The characters were simply engraved into the gold plates, unlike being stained black as Orson Pratt (who had never seen the plates) had reported.[12] This time, however, I noticed that the top two or three plates were indeed stained in precisely that manner! To the best of my knowledge none of the rest were so stained, so it appears that after reading the first few plates, Joseph the Seer realized that he could read the characters without them being stained. Thus, it appears that it was Joseph who had stained those characters and not the Prophet Mormon. Figure 6 shows what appeared to me to be the last plate which had been stained and first which had not.

Fig. 6. Stained and unstained characters.

Now we come to the important part of my witness for this article. Mauricio had with him Moroni's ring! We turned to the last plate from which the Book of Mormon had been translated, and there was the seal imprinted deep into the plate, which Mauricio had shown to me last year, when he told me about Joseph F. Smith bringing the ring to verify the authenticity of the plates.

I had some pictures of the ring both front and back on the previous Wednesday, where the initials "J S" were scratched into the ring, clearly for "Joseph Smith" (Figure 4). But now we placed the ring in position right next to the impression on the last Book of Mormon plate and both Steve and I photographed that, showing how the ring matches the impression. My photo is shown in Figure 7 where the thickness of the plates can also be seen, on which Moroni's ring is placed. I could not ascertain if the black stone set in the oval was a perfect fit, but I also remembered that the stone had been repaired so I was not expecting that.

The appearance of the ring was that it was clearly hand made. Moreover, the gold appeared also to be about 18 karat (75%) gold, much like the plates themselves. I sensed that it was indeed an ancient sacred treasure!

Thus, I hereby bear my solemn witness to all readers that I have indeed seen a gold ring which was almost certainly used to make an indentation on the last page of the plates which became the Book of Mormon. The whole process is reminiscent of how ancient scrolls of scriptures had been sealed with a signet ring impression on sealing wax.

3. Conclusion

Fig. 7. Moroni's ring and impression on plate.

Many "Joseph Smith rings" have been sold solely on the basis that they were replicas of what once belonged to the Prophet. Now evidence is brought forth that Joseph's ring itself was a replica of what is herein called "Moroni's ring", based on the claim of Mauricio the Seer that Moroni gave such a ring to Joseph Smith along with the plates, which has not been known publicly until now. Apparently the purpose of the ring was that it functioned as a signet ring to be used in later verification of the plates by matching it with its impression in the last plate of the Book of Mormon.

It is claimed that this ring was inherited by Joseph Fredrick Smith, great grandson of Joseph the Prophet, and that he knew of its potential use to verify the claim of Mauricio Berger of Brazil of possessing of the actual Plates of Mormon. Witnesses attest that when Joseph visited Brazil in October 2017, he verified that indeed his ring matched the impression on the last plate. Thus, he was satisfied that the plates were authentic.

In October 2019, Joseph F. Smith rejected Mauricio as a prophet and in January 2020 he repudiated the Church's claim that he had verified the plates with a ring, or that he had possession of or even knew about the ring.

Then in April 2020, through revelation, a gold ring was found in Mauricio's couch in the presence of six witnesses, which I personally have seen and photographed that it matches the impression on one of the gold plates.

This article does not claim that this ring alone provides absolute proof of the authenticity of the Plates of Mormon, but it does summarize the evidence as understood by the Reborn LDS Church. This entire history is an example of the wonderful foresight of the Lord to verify the authenticity of the gold plates and the work of God!

Addendum 1

On Tue 22 Dec 2020, after the publication of this article, I contacted Dr. John Lefgren of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with whom I had worked on the date of the First Vision, to tell him that the Lord had confirmed our proposed date of Sun 26 Mar 1820[13] in a revelation given during Mauricio's sermon at the conference on Sat 21 Nov 2020.[14]

Before I could do that, John exclaimed that he had just read my article about Joseph's ring and had to tell me something which he had never mentioned to me. Almost a decade ago he had become very interested in Joseph Smith's gold ring and decided to discover its history. He had deduced that the ring must have been made in Philadelphia during Joseph's visit there at the end of 1839 and the beginning of 1840 because that was the most prominent city of the day and one of the very few places that such a ring could have been made. Moreover, Joseph was known to have had the ring after 1840 and there was nowhere else where he had been where it could have been cast. He knew all of the details of Joseph's trip and actually saw the receipt for when Joseph rented the Unitarian Church to preach for his first time in a large church to a huge crowd.

Lefgren went to Philadelphia on Wed 15 Jun 2011 for information. He visited several jewelers asking for details about how a gold ring would have been made in 1840. They replied that it would have been 18 karat (75% gold) and would have been cast, not forged, and would have taken about a week to produce. They said they could fit any size finger perfectly. They told him it was a very technical process, requiring temperatures of 2,000° F, so it could not have been made in Nauvoo.

I solemnly testify that before Tue 22 Dec 2020, I knew absolutely nothing about Lefgren's 2011 trip to Philadelphia nor that he ever had done any research about Joseph's ring. With his permission, here is the entire email report of his trip dated Fri 17 Jun 2011, which was sent to five people:

Michael,

I want to give a report on my trip to Philadelphia. I departed at 7am on Wednesday and drove to Warren Spindler's art studio in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. From there we drove directly to the center of the old city where there are about one thousand buildings from colonial times. These buildings are still in use as houses and businesses. We parked on the street for the first two hours. Our first destination was the Kesher Israel Jewish Synagogue on 412 Lombard Street. The weather was beautiful. The gate at the synagogue was locked and there was no one inside. I had called several times earlier in the week to arrange an appointment without any success. From the street I called on my cell phone and by chance I was able to talk with a nice lady who had a key to the synagogue but was not there. I explained to her that I was from out-of-town and that I wanted to see the place where Joseph Smith had preached in Philadelphia on January 13, 1839. She asked me if I were part of the group of forty Mormons who are scheduled to visit the synagogue on Friday at 9:30am. I told her no. She said that today there was no one there and that she was sorry. I told her that I would take a walk around the building and try to see what I could see from the outside. About 30 minutes later the lady came to the gate and told me she wanted to show Warren and me the inside. We had a wonderful tour of the place. In 1793 the Universalists built the church for their services. Many signers of the Declaration of Independence including John Adams preached in the church. This was a very tolerant church and when Joseph Smith came to Philadelphia he was able to rent the church for preaching. I do not understand how the Mormon missionaries were able to get so many people to come to hear Joseph Smith preach. On the day that he preached there were 3,000 people in the church. That was more than tenth of the city's population. At no other time in his life was Joseph Smith able to preach to so many non-members. At no other time in his life did he preach in such a large enclosed space.

Jews from Eastern Europe bought the church from the Universalists in the late nineteenth century and dedicated it as their placed of worship. They were careful to retain the original pews and to keep the interior much as it was when Joseph Smith was there. It was wonderful to feel the place to and to get a sense of the space as it would have been when he preached. I was able to stand in the very spot where the Prophet stood and gave his personal testimony of his visions and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Parley P. Pratt was there and he would later write that when Joseph Smith went up before the 3,000 people to preach he roared like a lion. I wanted to do the same. It was wonderful. The dimensions of the interior space have not changed since January 13, 1840. The balcony holds nearly as many people as the main hall. The pulpit is located in such a place that the preacher and the people are closely tied to each other. Click here to see some pictures. There is no doubt that Joseph Smith preached there. The historical records of the Mormon Church confirm the meeting. The 1840 ledger of the Universalist Church confirm receipt of rent money from Joseph Smith. The newspapers of Philadelphia confirm the advertisements which the Mormon missionaries made in announcing the meeting. On that night Joseph Smith gave a strong testimony of the restoration. The very seats where the people sat are still there to remind us of that time.

Only a few short blocks from the Universalist Church were at least sixteen silver and gold smiths who did their business in 1840. No other place in America at that time had such a large concentration of jewelry makers. The jewelry district of Philadelphia is still in the neighborhood. Today there are hundreds of businesses buying and selling billions of dollars of jewelry on Samson Street. These businesses are only a few short blocks from Lombard Street. The traditions of this business go back to colonial times. I had made an appointment for 11:30am with Larry Paul who owns his own casting shop on Sansom Street. He restores nineteenth jewelry for museums and private collectors. His customers include the Brandywine River Museum, the DuPont family, and the museum at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been in business for 32 years and has expert knowledge of casting techniques used by American jewelers in the mid-nineteenth century. He had studied the photos of the Joseph Smith Gold Ring. He said that he felt he could replicate the steps jewelers would have used to make the ring in 1840 and that Philadelphia was the best place in America at that time to do the job. Larry Paul had hundreds of master molds for making rings. We found one mold which was similar to Joseph Smith's ring. You can see this ring in my album. Looking at the design of the ring, Larry Paul thought that the ring could have been made from a mold where the oval engraving on the top of the ring was intended as a place for the setting a precious stone such as in the ring found in my album. I asked Larry Paul that if Abraham Lincoln wanted a gold ring in the 1840's while he was living in Springfield, Illinois how would he have likely acquired it. He said that a local merchant would have likely sold a ring which was cast in Philadelphia, New York or Boston. Larry Paul said that as far as Joseph Smith's ring goes he would be able to make a clearer opinion by looking at the micro-structure of the casting as well as karat content of the gold as compared to the content of the silver and copper. He definitely confirmed that the jewelers of Philadelphia in 1840 had the skill to cast such a gold ring and that they would have been able to fit the ring exactly to Joseph Smith's finger. He thought that the job could have been done in about a week.

From Larry Paul Castings Warren and I walked to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This research library has 21,000,000 original documents. With the exception of the Library of Congress, there is no other library which has such an extensive collection of documents dealing with the daily affairs of Americans in the nineteenth century. Most of the documents relate to the history of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Dan Rolph, head of research services, had prepared several items for our visit. He has worked at the library for 26 years and is a Mormon. It was primarily through his efforts that we have the hand written ledger confirming Joseph Smith's preaching at the Universalist Church. Dan Rolph provided us with the 1839 and the 1840 directories of families and their addresses in Philadelphia. He also gave us the names of all the silver and gold smiths located in Philadelphia. He was able to show that in Pennsylvania there were a couple of jewelers in Lancaster and that all the rest were located in Philadelphia. I took these resources and after two hours I identified sixteen jewelers who were in business at the time when Joseph Smith was in Philadelphia. These businesses were only a few blocks from where Joseph Smith was staying. He could have easily walked to any one of them. With these names I then went to the card catalog which was made more than a hundred years ago and which tries to tie the millions of documents to the names of the people who wrote the letters, ledgers, diaries and other original documents. I looked in the catalog under the names of each of the sixteen silver and gold smiths. I worked for three hours until 5pm and was not able to find any document from 1840 which was in the library and associated to one or more of the jewelers.

Warren and I left the library at about 5 pm. We walked for an hour around the old city and left. I dropped Warren off and got back home in Bethlehem at about 9 pm.

This is my report,

John [Lefgren]

Addendum 2

Today, 5 Jan 2021, I, John P. Pratt, received an email pointing out that there is an article on Wikipedia.org detailing the history of the jewelry store mentioned in this article, namely that of J. E. Caldwell & Co. on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia in 1839. I was unaware of that information when this article was published on 19 Dec 2020, because it did not occur to me that it would be so easy to verify those details which had been revealed to Mauricio.

Here is a verbatim quotation from that article, which gives the exact address on Chestnut Street and verifies that it was in business in 1839, when Joseph Smith spent a few weeks in Philadelphia, beginning at the end of that year:

J.E. Caldwell & Co. was a major jewelry retailer and one-time silversmith in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The company was founded at 163 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, by watchmaker James Emmot Caldwell in 1839. In 1843 the firm became the partnership of Bennett & Caldwell, then in 1848 was renamed J.E. Caldwell & Co. It produced its own silverware until the early 1850s, but subsequently the word "manufacturer" disappeared from its advertising. The firm experienced rapid growth from the start, and repeated enlargements and removals were made necessary from time to time to gain the greater facilities demanded. The Marble Building located at 822 Chestnut Street was inaugurated in December 1858. Before its ten-year lease expired, the company moved in 1867 to its main location, 902 Chestnut Street. That store was destroyed during a fire in 1869. Caldwell went to work, and, before the smoke lifted from the ruins of the destroyed building, he had the present palatial structure contracted for.

After Caldwell's death in 1881, his son James Albert Caldwell became head of the company. In 1952 Austion Homer became president, and the following year began an ambitious store expansion program. After a decline in fortune, however, Caldwell & Co. was purchased by Henry Birks & Sons of Montreal, and then in August 1992 acquired by Carlyle & Co. of Greensboro, North Carolina. Its flagship Philadelphia store closed in 2003, followed by the remaining branches in 2009.

Notes

1. The sermon is called the "King Follett Discourse" because it was given at the funeral of Elder King Follett, which was also general conference, on Easter Sunday, 7 Apr 1844, just months before the Prophet's martyrdom. One account records that he stated, "I take my ring from my finger and liken it to the immortal mind of man—the immortal part because it has no beginning. Suppose you cut it in two; then it has a beginning and an end; but join it again, and it continues one eternal round. So with the spirit of man. As the Lord liveth, if it had a beginning, it will have an end." See Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co., 1976, p. 354).
2. See Youngreen, Buddy, "From the Prophet's Life: A Photo Essay" Ensign (Jan 1984).
3. This portrait of Joseph Smith is taken from a daguerreotype (early type of photograph) of Joseph apparently made when he preached in Philadelphia during the winter of 1839-1840. See photo produced from it at "The Daguerreotype and Joseph Smith Jr.", which may be the most accurate photo known of the Prophet. The photo includes a ring with a flat top on the finger of the third finger of his right hand. The ring in this daguerreotype is probably not the same ring that Joseph wore through the Nauvoo period, because it was being made at the time it was taken, while Joseph was preaching in Philadelphia.
4. See, for example, "Joseph Saves the Plates from Three Assailants" which is a summary of an account recorded by the Prophet's mother, Lucy Mack Smith.
5. The time of this visit was probably during the last week of 1839 and first weeks of 1840 when Joseph founded the church in Philadelphia. See Shiffert, John, "Site of Joseph Smith's 1839 Philadelphia Sermon Identified," Ensign (May 1993).
6. See "Sealing wax" in Wikipedia and "Signet Rings" within "Seal (emblem)" in Wikipedia for summary articles on the subject.
7. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Signet Ring with Tutankhamun's Throne Name".
8. Pratt, John P., "Is The Sealed Book of Mormon Genuine?" (26 May 2019).
9. Although Joseph Fredrick Smith was called to be a high priest in the fledgling church in Brazil, he has now broken all ties with Mauricio Berger. He has started his own church called the Restructured Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, of which he is president. On Tue 15 Oct 2019 he issued this statement: "I have asked that my name be taken from the Sealed Book of Mormon. Understand however I do not discredit the book nor this work. I repeat for those of you who desire to cast shadows on others who you disagree with. I do not discredit the book, nor do I discredit this work. I withdraw my name because it is being used to promote what, in my opinion, is an organization in Brazil that has now become the equivalent of a cult; that which is not in accordance with the scriptures I have enjoyed for these many years. This is not acceptable to me." Thus, to paraphrase, he believed the Sealed Book was authentic, but that Mauricio afterward became a fallen prophet. Then on Thu 23 Jan 2020, he accused those in Brazil of lying about him having a ring which he had used to verify the authenticity of the Plates of Mormon: "Furthermore, without my consent they have used my name to further their falsehoods. They have even woven lies around my name by claiming I had a ring of my Great Grandfather's that I used to identify the validity of the plates. Lies and misinformation is not the work of God. What was once an opportunity to do a marvelous work for the Lord has become a parallel to the path which Cain traveled when he chose to serve Satan rather than God. Therefore it is with great sadness but also indignation that I must say, there is no way I can any longer associate myself with Mauricio Berger and his work in Brazil." The latter quote is from Joseph F. Smith's website: "To All Who Listen to Truth" (click on that title in the menu).
10. Pratt, John P., "Reborn LDS Church Conference" (28 Nov 2020) Section 2: Conference Summary.
11. Pratt, John P., "Examining the Gold Plates" (11 Jan 2020).
12. Orson Pratt had stated that the engravings "were stained with a black hard stain so as to make the letters more legible and easier to be read." (Deseret News, 12 Jan 1859, p. 190) quoted in Kirk Henrichsen's article "What Did the Golden Plates Look Like?" New Era, July 2007, p. 31, footnote 26.
13. See YouTube video H6MsQ6QBMMY.
14. Pratt, John P., "Reborn LDS Church Conference" (28 Nov 2020), Section 2: Conference Summary".