GEORGE & ALKIVIADIS MATTHAIUDAKIS.

A CENTURY AMONG EYEGLASSES, WATCHES & JEWELRY.

PAPA MATTHAIOS MATTHAIUDAKIS, THE FAMILY FOREFATHER.

Priest Matthaioudakis Matthaios hailed from Aliakes Milopotamou. Originally, it is likely that the family was called Papadakides, as many family members had been ordained, and thus from Papa Matthaios and his children, the “Matthaioudakia,” they ended up taking the surname Matthaioudakis. The priest moved to Varvitsa, Laconia with his wife, after being declared an outlaw by the Turks, as he participated in the failed Cretan Revolution of 1821. According to another version, based on oral testimony, when the local aga, wanting to insult Orthodoxy, urinated on the Holy Table of the church built by the Matthaioudakises in Aliakes, Papa Matthaios, enraged by the sacrilegious act, killed him and, fearing reprisals, fled the island. After Varvitsa, he settled in Pronoia, Nafplio, where a community of Cretan refugees, expelled from Ottoman-ruled Crete, had been established. He served his priestly duties in the church of Agia Triada Pronoias and the fortress of Palamidi until his death in 1849. In the records of the Cretan refugees, he is listed as “Papa Matthaios Avlopotamitis.” He had a daughter, Zampia, and two sons, Leonidas and Nikolaos. Leonidas was born in 1833 in Varvitsa, Laconia, and his brother Nikolaos in Nafplio in 1849. Sixteen-year-old Leonidas moved to Aliakes, along with his younger brother Nikolaos and their mother, when their father died in Nafplio.

THE BROTHERS LEONIDAS & NIKOLAOS MATTHAIUDAKIS

The warlord Leonidas Matthaioudakis founded the “Sacred Band” and took part in the siege of Arkadi Monastery. Leonidas served as a teacher in Melidoni, “Bimbas” of Viannos, Sitia, and Milopotamou, a Police Battalion Commander of Rethymno, a member of the Christian Gerousia, and a Customs Officer of Rethymno. In 1878, he co-signed as a proxy deputy of Rethymno the Treaty of Halepa for the semi-autonomy of Crete from the Sultan. Leonidas fled to Athens after the failure of the 1879 Revolution. In 1893, he returned to Crete under amnesty and served as a proxy in the revolutionary assembly during the 1897 revolution. He married Argyri Markopoulou and had four sons and two daughters. He died in 1918 in Aliakes.

THE WATCHMAKERS-JEWELERS-OPTICIANS GEORGE AND ALKIVIADIS LEON. MATTHAIUDAKIS

The watchmaker and jeweler George Leon. Matthaioudakis was born in 1869 in Aliakes. His brother, the watchmaker and jeweler Alkiviadis, was born in 1875 in Episkopi Milopotamou. The brothers opened a shop together at the junction of Arkadiou and Mousourou streets, in the small square there before the buildings were demolished on the side of the Metropolis. The jewelry-watchmaking shop was located between Pavlidaki’s cellar, Stefanaki’s grocery store, and Kallergis’s building. According to Mr. Nik. Tsoupakis, owner of this property, it was owned by Emm. Perakakis. Next to them was also the Notary Office of their brother Matthaios, also owned by Emm. Perakakis. Apart from the jewelry-watchmaking shop, to open up the Metropolis square, they also demolished the notary office and Stefanaki’s grocery store. George specialized in watches and Alkiviadis in gold. Due to their proximity to the Metropolis, they took on the task of tuning the church bell tower clock, a tradition that George’s children would continue.

The store was elongated. In the showcase were clocks with bells (alarms). Inside, a bench dominated with various clocks and it also had some eyeglasses, as an additional product for profit. In the store, they manufactured the axes of the clocks by hand, while the rest of the parts were purchased from Switzerland. George suffered from hemiplegia and passed away in 1937. The store was inherited by his son, Leonidas. He previously trained as a watchmaker the then dockworker, Io. Dasionakis, with the stipulation and as he saw his end approaching, that Dasionakis would train the young Leonidas (14 years old) in the art of watchmaking. George had, apart from Leonidas, four daughters, Chrysoula Markaki, Maria Androulaki, Georgia Vlachaki, and Elpida Dasionaki. Dasionakis would keep his word and would help Leonidas. Later, Dasionakis would move to Heraklion. The grandson of George, Mr. Matthaios Matthaioudakis, mentions that his grandfather apprenticed with a watchmaker named Avatzos. Alkiviadis learned the craft close to his brother George. “George specialized in watchmaking. Alkiviadis was more of a jeweler,” he states. Regarding the watches, Mr. Alkiviadis Matthaioudakis, brother of Mr. Matthaios, mentions that there were pocket watches, wind-up watches, hand watches, alarm clocks, and table clocks. Regarding the jewelry, the people of Rethymno bought wedding bands, forty-stephanos, stephanothikes, agiokonstantinata, crosses, half-lira pendants, sacred vessels, “dressings” of silver for icons, tobacco boxes, gold and silver pantatifs.

EYEGLASSES

Alkiviadis would travel to Constantinople and learn new techniques in jewelry making. In the City, he learned to make eyeglass frames from gold and silver. From Constantinople, he would transfer to Rethymno the crystalline lenses of the glasses. With special “measuring sticks,” they would be able to measure the degrees of myopia. The frames were handmade monoculars and bifocals, which would fit on the customer’s nose with a spring. In addition to these frames, there were also pocket glasses with a chain. The lenses were round and flat. They were screwed onto the frames after being processed on the “spherometer” to match the degrees of myopia. Astigmatism had not yet been discovered. Later, cheaper plastic frames known as “IKA frames” emerged. These standardized frames, made from carob paste, to properly fit the lenses, were heated and opened with the “colored cone.”

IN THE PLATANO

Alkiviadis married Eleni Platyrrachou from Kouroutes Amariou in 1911. They lived at 14 Vivylaki Street, in his wife’s dowry house. He would buy a jewelry store on 28.05.1922, in Platanos, opposite Vrysakia. According to the contract, which is in the hands of Mr. Nik. Tsoupakis, whose mother is Matthaioudakis, it belonged to the Ottoman tobacco cutter Hasan Makrydakis of Ahmed. Later, as they did not have children, the property would be inherited by Eleni’s nieces to eventually remain with the optician, Michalis Platyrachos. Alkiviadis passed away in 1938.

ARKADIOU STREET 161

George’s son, Leonidas, in 1960 when the shop on Mousourou would be demolished, opened a watch and optical shop at Arkadiou 169, next to Roula Dasionaki’s jewelry store. There he would engage more in optics, although he was a watchmaker. Leonidas would stay in this shop for a full 56 years. To enhance his knowledge in optics, he previously traveled to Athens (1958) and apprenticed at the House of Bairamoglou. With exams, he would obtain his optician’s license. Until then, opticians were craftsmen. Leonidas married Evangelia Frangiadaki and had, apart from Matthaios, who would take over the optics when Leonidas retired, Giorgis, who followed the medical science, and Alkiviadis, who learned jewelry making close to the watchmaker-jeweler Nik. Dasionakis and his uncle Alkiviadis. Alkiviadis would open a silver-goldsmith shop in 1983 at Arkadiou 119, which operates to this day.

SUNGLASSES

On Easter 1965, the representative Chaideftopoulos would suggest to Leonidas to add sunglasses to the store. His son, Matthaios, persuaded him to buy 25 pairs from the FILOS and PERSOL companies. The glasses cost 12 drachmas. In just two days, the glasses sold out! Whether it was the sun or the Easter shopping, they became a hit. Since then, they continually stocked sunglasses. At the same time, he repaired watches. The shop had a display window with glasses and watches. Inside, there were two opposite glass display cabinets where he combined the watches with the glasses. At the back, the repair bench for the watches. On the right, a wooden couch and large hanging display cabinets with vision and sunglasses, and a large mirror above the couch. Another carved bench stood on the left with drawers full of glasses for customers to try. In the back, a lower display cabinet separated the shop from the workshop. In this display cabinet, alarm clocks and glasses were displayed. In the workshop, you encountered the workbench of the opticians. A lens meter and a stone surface with running water, in case a lens needed grinding, were on the bench. Like a sewing machine, the tailor gave power with his foot to turn the wheel to sew, so too did the optician to properly grind the crystal lens and not break it, pressed with his foot on the wheel. The lenses were bought ready with degrees and the optician had to place them in the frame. The outline of the frame was drawn on a cigarette packet and with this “pattern” they etched with a diamond the outline, cut, and ground the crystal lens. Angelika transferred the lenses from Athens. Later, with special pliers and a machine with two stones, which Andreas Kochrakis had invented, they ground the lenses. To drill holes in the lenses, in which to secure the frames, they used acetone. In 1966, other types of glasses would make their appearance. In the store, his son, Matthaios, would begin to work, who in 1973 would move to Athens and apprentice close to Papadiamantopoulos, a well-known optician of the capital. Matthaios would later partner in Chania with Lazakis. Later (1977), he would open an optical shop on Kountourioti Street in Rethymno. His father, Leonidas, would close his shop on Arkadiou in 1993 and would pass away in 1996. His children, however, Matthaios and Alkiviadis, would continue the family tradition in optics and jewelry, passing on their craft to their own children (the son of Matthaios, Leonidas, would study optics and open his own shop on Arkadiou).