Denmark’s crown jeweller
After a meteoric rise to stardom, Georg Jensen has left behind a legacy of beautiful jewellery
HE WAS born the son of a Danish knife grinder. When Georg Jensen died in 1935, he was hailed as the greatest silversmith his country had produced in 300 years. Today, the company he founded in 1904 enjoys royal appointment to the Queen of Denmark and is a global luxury brand with a network of retailers in more than 12 countries.
Interestingly, Jensen always worked in silver rather than gold as the raw material of choice for his creations. Apart from its affordability, he said silver had intrinsic qualities that reminded him of his homeland.
In an interview in 1926 on his 60th birthday, he explained: “Silver is the best material we have. Gold is precious for its worth, not for its effect.
“Silver has that lovely glow of moonlight, something like the light of a Danish summer night. Silver is like dusk, dewy and misty. Gold, on the other hand, is effective only in its brilliance and that it conceals much.”
Cast an eye over the pieces illustrated here and be alert next time you visit an auction, flea market or car boot sale. Bargains are out there.
There was a time was when collectors linked Jensen’s name only to his innovative tea sets and cutlery for the dinner table. Then they discovered his jewellery and its popularity boomed, but there are still many gems waiting to be unearthed in job lots and charity shops.
Jensen jewellery was never truly expensive, but do not disregard it as costume jewellery. Highly collectable vintage pieces are not particularly rare – at least not yet. A friend who purchased a brooch for 50p a couple of years ago has just had it valued at £2,000.
Georg Jensen was born in Raadvad, north of Copenhagen in 1866, the seventh of eight children. Up to his 14th birthday, he worked with his father in the knife factory but was then apprenticed to a goldsmith, which lasted until 1884.
He also took art classes and passed the entrance exam for the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1892.
He married the year before his graduation and the couple went on to have two children, but his wife died in 1897, leaving him with responsibility for the two small boys. He married a further three times.
He first made a name for himself as a sculptor and art potter – one of his creations was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 – first as a modeller with Bing & Grondahl and then with a small pottery workshop with Christian Petersen. While his work was well received, sales were not strong enough to support a widower with two sons.
In 1901, he abandoned ceramics and turned instead to metalworking, joining forces with a master silversmith, who taught him the skills to produce pieces that would appeal to customers eager to follow the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts Movement fashions.
In order to make ends meet, he also made jewellery to supplement his income, which he displayed in a wooden showcase on a wall outside his home.
In 1904, with financial backing from a Copenhagen businessman, Jensen opened his own silver workshop in the city where he planned to produce commercially successful designs rather than reproductions of antique silver. His goal was achieved by recruiting talented designers who shared his aspirations.
Best known among them was Johan Rohde, whom Jensen had met at the Academy, and the two became lifelong friends and associates, Rhode designing the important Acorn pattern tableware which continues to be made by the Jensen company today.
Others included Sigvard Bernadotte (1907-2002), the son of Gustaf VI Adolf, the King of Sweden; Harald Nielsen, who majored in Art Deco designs and Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe, whose speciality was Post-Modern. Unusually for the time, designers were allowed to mark their work, so they are readily identifiable by today’s collectors.
Jensen was inspired by Danish silver from the late 16th century through to the Art Nouveau period, and his factory in Copenhagen produced bowls, tea sets, vases and stunning chandeliers, which were snapped up by an eager and rich clientele.
The decorative motifs for which Jensen silver is renowned were drawn from his childhood love of nature including grapes, pine cones, blossom and berries. It won wide acclaim in every major international exhibition of the applied arts.
At first, pieces leaned towards the naturalism of the Art Nouveau period, but later embraced angular, geometric Art Deco designs that hinted at Modernism.
This naturally went down well in America, and millionaire William Randolph Hearst was their first major patron there. He bought just about all the wares the firm had on show at the 1915 San Francisco World Fair. Marilyn Monroe was said to be another fan.
By 1920, a showroom had been opened on Fifth Avenue in New York and American silversmiths began copying Jensen designs. The most successful imitator was the International Silver Company of Meriden, Connecticut, who were cheeky enough to stamp some of what they produced with “USA Georg Jensen Inc.” which can mislead today’s collectors.
By Jensen’s death in 1935, the company had further showrooms in Brussels, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Geneva, London and Paris.