Artist Profile: Dutch American Import Co.
The Scheps and their four children immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands in 1956. Gerrit Schep had dreamed about immigrating to the United States since he was a small boy in Holland. His mother had family who immigrated to the Dutch settlement of Pella, Iowa in the early 1900's. His fascination with this faraway land grew through their letters home.
The First Methodist Church of Pasadena, California sponsored the family's immigration to the United States. The church membership provided a house completely stocked with food immediately upon their arrival. Mr. Schep had a job waiting for him at the California Institute of Technology as a custodian. Although this job was not his life's goal it did provide a foundation for his family.
The Scheps always wanted to start their own company and their immigration to the U.S. would provide that opportunity. They brought with them several samples of silver gifts and souvenirs produced by the various silver factories of Schoonhoven, Holland. Mr. Schep worked at Cal-Tech from 5am to 1pm Monday through Friday and worked on building Dutch American Import in the afternoons and on weekends. He worked the road trying to find a market for these items and Mrs. Schep communicated with the manufacturers in Holland.
The very first item he sold was a custom designed collectable souvenir spoon for Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. From that humble beginning, and as theme parks were developing in southern California, he was able to expand his market of custom designed silver collectibles.
"We have had the pleasure of working with Yosemite since the 70's," says VP Marshall Lundgren. "When we are working on a new design our challenge has always been to find designs that are most representative of Yosemite and the surroundings but will still look like something on a 15.5MM diameter emblem on the top of a spoon. The small pewter emblems are stamped in China, the colored emblems are a photographic process covered in resin made in New Zealand and the spoon blanks are stamped and plated by multi-ton presses in Japan and Holland. We only bring in the components from these countries and everything is assembled, packaged and priced here in Bend, Oregon. In addition to our full time staff, we rely heavily on temporary local labor to get us through the busy times when national parks and related locations are ramping up for their season."
