GEORG JENSEN JEWELLERY: HISTORY & VALUATIONS

A history of Georg Jensen jewellery

Georg Jensen is one of the most famed and most respected names in silverware and jewellery, and one of the silversmiths that introduced Scandinavian designs to the US. Despite humble beginnings as an aspiring sculptor, Jensen found his calling in making beautiful Art Nouveau style flatware and jewellery. The company has continued to evolve since the founder’s death, and today is still famed and respected. Original pieces are highly sought after. 

In 1904 Jensen rented a small shop in Copenhagen with a view to building a silverware business, and later that year he exhibited at the Museum of Decorative Art in Copenhagen as an independent silversmith. This exhibition put Jensen on the map, and he began selling out of stock at his small shop. 

On opening his shop, Jensen found that making jewellery was a smaller financial investment than making flatware or hollowware. His jewellery was new and unique in design, and all made from silver. Jensen experimented with using different inexpensive stones in his jewellery, such as malachite, opals, amber, and moonstone. 

Jensen made a whole host of different pieces, including earrings, brooches, rings, bracelets, necklaces, and hat pins. These pieces were marketed towards the middle classes as pieces of art, not to the upper classes who were only interested in the inherent value of the pieces. 

Many of his designs incorporated symbols of the natural world, and subtle embellishment, owing to his tutoring by Mogens Baillin and his influential travels around Europe. Jensen was part of the movement among European artists that focused on not letting true craftsmanship become overshadowed by mass production, which typically produced unimaginative and unattractive goods. As such, Jensen and his collaborators paid particular attention to detail, modelling their jewellery like small sculptures. 

Jensen collaborated with many different artists and designers during his career. During his time crafting jewellery, he collaborated with the Danish artist Christian Mohl Hansen to create the beautiful dove brooch. This motif is a recurring image within Jensen’s designs and remains popular today. 

Due to the success of his jewellery making, Jensen decided to try his hand at making hollowware. A teapot that he made during this time bears the pattern ‘Magnolia’. This teapot now belongs to the Museum of Decorative Art. 

In 1905, Jesen was approached by an old friend named John Rohde, who asked Jensen to create a flatware set from one of his designs. This request signalled Jensen’s move into creating flatware – something that he had been dreaming of doing for a long time. 

Despite his new venture into flatware, Jensen continued to make jewellery, and in the 1920s he was challenged with keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of design. In the 1920s, Art Deco was taking hold of Europe. Cubism and Futurism also began to evolve. 

Scandinavian countries were slightly behind the trend, however, due to their rich history of craftsmanship and traditional styles. Johan Rohde, one of Jensen’s designers, was quite far ahead of his counterparts due to his fondness of minimal design, though the lack of geometric design kept Rohde firmly in the camp of Art Nouveau rather than Art Deco. 

One of the first Art Deco style designs to come out of Jensen’s studio was ‘Pyramid’ in 1927 designed by Harald Nielsen. Gudolph Albertus’s patterns ‘Bittersweet’ and ‘Cactus’ also had Art Deco leanings.

During the mid-1920s, Georg Jensen opened a workshop in Paris in which he would experiment with the Art Deco style, creating less flamboyant and more streamlined designs during this time. 

The stock market crash of 1929 saw the demand for functionality over beauty, and the Art Deco style began to firmly take hold of Denmark. Out of necessity, people were turning to products that performed a function, rather than fashion pieces that were purely for decoration. This caused tension when it began to affect jewellery design, and jewellery by definition is for decoration. This also caused tension in terms of gender, as the functionalist designs were seen as more masculine, despite the primary market for jewellery consisting of women. The 1930s saw a massive economic downturn, and as a result, a boost in demand for practical pieces.

Sigvaard Bernadotte, a Swedish Prince, joined the firm in 1930, and he possessed some creative ideas that adhered to the ever-growing popularity of Art Deco. His designs were firmly Functionalist, and at first, were not very popular among Jensen’s customers. However, since then they have become extremely popular after the designs were retained. These designs were streamlined and uniform, producing exactly what was craved in the wider population at the time. 

Biomorphism began to gain popularity in the 30s alongside Art Deco, and Jensen designer Henning Koppel epitomised this movement within his designs. This movement was characterised by fluid and organic shapes. These pieces were dramatic and daring, and Koppel is still renowned for these designs today. Despite his daring and beautiful designs, his visions made him clash with other silversmiths, as his designs meant pushing the boundaries of what was possible for the materials. However, artists that criticised his work, such as Hans Christensen (who also worked at Georg Jensen), would later improve on his designs. Christensen and John Prip loved Koppel’s designs but were concerned about the practical aspects of making them. Their later works are quite obviously influenced by Koppel, but made with more stable and reliable materials. 

Georg Jensen died in 1935, in the midst of the rise of Art Deco and Biomorphism. His company, however, would live on and is still thriving today. 

Biomorphism stood the test of time and it was not until the 1950s that it was replaced by Scandinavian Modernism. Elements of Functionalism and Biomorphism combined with elements of other artistic movements to form Scandinavian Modernism. Scandinavian designs sold very well overseas in the US, with each Scandinavian country putting their own stamp on designs. The pieces were characteristic of fine and graceful curves and lines, whilst also being functional. It was a perfect mixing of all of the design elements that consumers wanted. 

An exhibition was held in 1960 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York held an exhibition entitled, Denmark: Viking to Modern, in which Georg Jensen’s designs were represented. The exhibition marked recognition in the world of Fine Art for the designs that were coming from Scandinavian shores. 

It was during this time that female silversmiths such as Nanna Ditzel and Torun Bulow-Hube burst onto the scene with new and innovative ideas. Torun Bulow-Hube quickly gained international recognition and even designed jewellery for celebrities such as Ingrid Bergman, Brigitte Bardot, and Billie Holiday. Torun Bulow-Hube began designing for Georg Jensen in 1968, until her death in 2004. 

In the 1960s emphasis on aesthetics again began to influence design. Holloware and flatware saw drops in demand, and jewellery was on the rise. Georg Jensen employed a host of designers including Astrid Fog to keep up with the trends in designing jewellery for the modern woman. The company succeeded in doing this, and today Georg Jensen is as much respected and valued as it was when Georg Jensen himself made his dreams a reality by selling jewellery out of his shop in Copenhagen.