Design Notebook………….

Georg Jensen silver.

There is not one designer who you could say appeals to men and women and also covers the home. From his striking modern jewellery to his silver teapots and coffee jugs Georg Jensen covers everyone with his simplicity of style and elegance.

The business is now over a hundred years old was first founded in 1904 as a small workshop in Copenhagen, Denmark by Georg Jensen – a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts who had previously worked as a sculptor. The academic education of Jensen, however, had been only the natural continuation of his training as a goldsmith which began when he was fourteen. Before starting his own business he had also been an apprentice to one of the most prominent Danish silversmiths at the time. During his thirty years of work he set numerous trends in jewellery and silver making that have been widely accepted in Europe and the rest of the world and built the foundations of a constantly expanding prosperous business.

Georg Jensen was one of the biggest representatives of the Art Nouveau movement with his innovative jewellery and silverware designs.

 Jensen specialized in the production of silver flatware using the techniques he had learnt from his father and mastered as an apprentice. He adopted the organic curvilinear and gentle forms promoted by the Art Nouveau. The natural world was the major source of inspiration for models such as the blossom, cactus, dahlia, fuchsia, lily of the valley, rose, cypress and acanthus patterned silver cutlery. The designer and his colleagues were also inspired by the arts of ancient local and world cultures. Jensen and his co-workers, such as designer Johan Rohde, created distinctive and unique silver flatware sets and separate pieces having the Viking, Nordic, Old Danish, Persian, Mayan and even Elsinore patterns.

Jensen worked mainly with silver in the beginning of his jewellery making career,. In the spirit of the Art Nouveau movement Georg Jensen experimented with adding various precious and semi-precious stone as the accents to his jewellery designs. The semi-precious agate stones were amongst the most preferred in his workshops for their pastel and bold diverse colours ranging from turquoise to bright yellow. During the Art Deco era Georg Jensen became the leader in jewellery production by introducing geometrical designs and sharp straight lined decorative ornaments and patterns. The works became so influential that they were soon widely imitated throughout Europe. The Jensen women’s jewellery remained the most abundantly produced, but the silver accessories for men such as the tie bars also became popular for their new less curved and elaborate and more “manly” designs.

Throughout the 20th century the company started by Georg Jensen continued to expand. Throughout the years notable designers such as Henning Koppel as well as Nanna Ditzel, and Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe created some of the most memorable models and collections of the company.