Bloodline Jewellers Since Before the 19th Century to the 21st Century
The Chahamana family surnames of Chohan, Chauhan, Chouhan, and Chohhan are all the same name. They have been translated and spelled differently in English. These Chahamana family surnames (Chauhan, Chohan, Chouhan, and Chohhan) belong to the prestigious Rajput warrior caste of India. Beginning prior to the 7th century up until the 15th century, many parts of India were ruled by Rajput dynasties. This was under the guidance of kings and emperors like King Prithviraj Chauhan, and his predecessors and successors. Due to the ever changing reigns of kings and empires, following the Chahamana empires decline in the 15th century. Many Chahamana dynasty’s downsized to rule smaller territories through out India.
During the colonization of India in the19th century by the British Empire. Many Chahamana clan families could not continue to survive under the lack of employment of warriors since the British army had took over and Indian King ruled armys were a thing of the past. For this reason, and because they had a trememdous amount of gold, jewels and riches gathered over the centuries, many Chahamana clan families chose to go into the profession of goldsmithing, silversmithing, and jewellers. This family being one of those families.
The Chohan family’s history in the jewellery business dates back many centuries. However do to multiple invasions of India, and the partition of India and Pakistan through the state Punjab in 1947; a lot off family history has been lost. Chohan Goldsmiths began in 2013, founded by Pritam Chohan. However its roots in Canada started decades before. The Chohan family’s beginnings in Canada’s jewellery industry began when the founders father, Gurdip Chohan, migrated to Canada from his native country of India (Punjab). Gurdip Chohan learnt goldsmithing back in his native country, taught by his immediate paternal family members who carried a long lineage of jewellers as mentioned above. After years of apprenticeship under his family; Gurdip Chohan had learnt the majority there was to learn about the art of goldsmithing. It led him to have a very successful jewellery business in India before migrating to Canada.
In the early 1970’s Gurdip Chohan migrated to Toronto, Canada. In his early years as a new immigrant Gurdip Chohan worked as a diamond and stone setter for some of Canada’s biggest jewellery chains. Allowing him to gauge and learn the Canadian jewellery trends, language, and industry. Not to long after, he ventured out on his own to open his own jewellery businesses (Chohan Jewellers, Golden Jewellers, A-One Jewellers). Originally starting out doing retail jewellery for the public, Gurdip Chohan later transitioned into providing wholesale goldsmithing services to jewellery retailers and astrologers. Gurdip Chohan had a solid reputation in Toronto’s jewellery industry for over 40 years and he specialized in precious gemstone, diamond, and high karat (22kt) jewellery. What was unique about Gurdip Chohan’s jewellery was that he was able to use high karat gold (22kt) and make jewellery with it that was fashionable and trendy yet still served the astrologers purpose of letting the stone culet touch the skin. Unlike his competitors who would make plain and generic designs to serve the astrology purpose.
Gurdip Chohan retired from the jewellery industry and shut down his business at the age of 65. Not to long after, Gurdip Chohan passed away in the year 2010 at the age of 66 leaving behind a young 15 year old son (Pritam Chohan).
Today the Chohan family’s tradition of fine jewellery crafting is carried through the business of Chohan Goldsmiths. A company founded and operated by Pritam Chohan.
Pritam Chohan is a Toronto (Ontario, Canada) born designer, goldsmith, and founder of Chohan Goldsmiths. His role is to head the designing and manufacturing of all Chohan Goldsmiths pieces. Pritam Chohan was introduced to his craft from his father (Gurdip Chohan) who introduced him to the family trade of goldsmithing. However because Pritam Chohan’s father passed away when Pritam Chohan was only 15 years old, Pritam Chohan had to learn the craft from other sources. Some of these sources included a formal university education, and the aid of literature, individual research and trial and error. Pritam Chohan has experience in CAD design, wax models, casting, fabrication, benchwork, stone setting, polishing, finishing, and many other aspects of goldsmithing and silversmithing.
Pritam Chohan’s humble beginnings in the jewellery industry began from the young age of 5 when he would accompany his father (Gurdip Chohan) a master goldsmith, to his studio after school. Over the years Pritam Chohan had starting sitting on the bench alongside his father (Gurdip Chohan) and learning some very basic techniques of filing and forming metals. Around the age of 8, Pritam Chohan had had his first attempt to craft a ring from scratch; it was not the Mona Lisa of rings, but lets just say it deserved an “A+” for effort.
Unfortunately, at the age of 15, Pritam Chohan lost his retired father (Gurdip Chohan) due to a heart attack. Losing his father (Gurdip Chohan) at that young age meant Pritam Chohan was old enough to understand that his life was going to change.
As a year passed from the tragedy of his father’s (Gurdip Chohan) death, Pritam Chohan took up a position of a jewellery and watch repair technician for a company licensed under the name of Sears Watch and Jewellery Repair Department. The motive behind Pritam Chohan taking this job was for the obvious financial need, but also to continue his experience in the jewelry industry. While working at his day job, Pritam Chohan also continued to self teach, practice, and improve his goldsmithing and silversmithing skills at his father’s (Gurdip Chohan) old home studio during the evenings and weekends. This allowed him to learn and acquire skills in wax carving, casting, soldering, stone setting, polishing, goldsmithing, and silversmithing. Over the years Pritam Chohan had learnt enough from his own self teaching, and his work experience; that he was able to hold his ground in discussions on jewellery and manufacturing techniques with master jewellers upwards of 5 times his own age.
After working as a watch and jewellery repair technician for multiple years; it was time to venture out on his own and start this company. Pritam Chohan repaired and restored his father’s (Gurdip Chohan) many decades old machines to a professional standard. They were not state of the art, but they did the job and had great sentimental value. However, Pritam Chohan needed a “place of business”. He was too young and lacking the finances to acquire a legitimate commercial lease. With no other viable option, Pritam Chohan opened up for business in his mothers 200sqft 1 car garage. He made it into a workshop and home office, 10′ x 10′ each, in the North West end of the Greater Toronto Area.
Over the course of the next few years, the innovative designs and craftsmanship quality of Pritam Chohan’s jewellery, Chohan Goldsmiths started to gain a name for itself in the jewellery industry. Chohan Goldsmiths quickly out grew the 200sqft 1 car garage in 2 years and added a prestigious but small 169sqft high rise office in downtown Toronto (Yorkville) at the corner of Bloor and Yonge. Expansion didn’t end there; the combined 369sqft was still not enough. After 1 year of expanding to downtown Toronto, Chohan Goldsmiths acquired a 1,000sqft location in the west end of Toronto to have their studio, office, and showroom all in one convenient location. Not long after, within 3 years Chohan Goldsmiths moved into a building double the size of their last (2,000sqft) in the same area of Toronto. This new building allowed for industrial zoning and had neighboring units that would allow Chohan Goldsmiths to expand and grow exponentially.
Today after many years Pritam Chohan the designer at Chohan Goldsmiths, designs jewellery that cannot be found anywhere else. Through Chohan Goldsmiths, Pritam Chohan creates pieces of jewellery inspired modern engineering principles and distinctive architecture. Chohan Goldsmiths specializes in designing and creating bespoke pieces of jewellery using traditional and modern techniques coupled with the most high quality materials and state of the art technology. Chohan Goldsmiths strives to push the benchmark on jewellery designs and trends. In Indian and other Asian cultures, gold and silver are kept as investments. In fact India was once actually known as the Golden Bird. For this reason, jewellery in Asia is often made with high purities of gold. Likewise all Chohan Goldsmiths jewellery is made using either the highest grades of gold metals while maintaining in mind durability and longevity; or with the heavy and extensive use of gold. For this reason Chohan Goldsmiths offers pieces that are unmatched in the market, and brings to the forefront pieces that are an union of Eastern and Western history, cultures and trends.