Georg
Jensen through the Years
Georg Jensen is well known from all around the
world with many models and actresses such as Olivia Wilde, Kate Bosworth and
even the Crown Princess Mary of Denmark have been seen wear this iconic brand.
Georg Jensen named the brand after himself, created
a very successful jewellery brand with more than a hundred years of history.
Showing great attention to detail and craftsmanship into every jewellery piece
made, there is no question to of why it became so popular around the world.
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| Georg Jenson Source: www.georgjensen.com |
August 31st
1866
Georg Arthur Jensen was born in Raadvaad, a small town north of Copenhagen,
Denmark. Georg inherited his creative skills from his father whose profession
was a knife grinder in the town Georg was born.
Here is a little look at Georgs earlier stages in life before making it
as a successful silversmith and designer:
1880
Jenson first began his training as a goldsmith at the age of just 14,
his training took place in Copenhagen.
1884
A few years later Jensen was free to pursue his artistic dreams in
sculpting as he finished his goldsmithing apprenticeship with the company
Guldsmed Andersen.
1892
Jensen found the perfect course at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts doing
his lifelong passion for sculpting.
When Jensen graduated he then started exhibiting his work, although his clay
work was well received by everyone, it proved difficult making a living out of
sculpting fine art and it did not help turning down the applied arts.
1898
Jensen became a modeller at the Bing And Grondahl porcelain factory
and later for a small pottery workshop which he founded with business partner
Christian Petersen. Although he still received high praise for his work, he
couldn’t make enough sales to support his two very young sons and his widowed
self.
1901
Jensen later abandoned his pottery business as it was too much work with
very little outcome as he was hugely struggling to support himself and two
sons. So Jensen began working with an artist master Mogens Ballin as a
silversmith and designer.
1904
3 years after working with Ballin, Jensen made a huge landmark decision
which risked all his current capital in creating his own silversmith business
located in a small studio in Bredgade, Copenhagen.
This is where the brand Georg Jensen was born, this is where all his
years of training and work was put to the test and where he was able to finally
master his profession in carefully crafting very fine art deco jewellery.
1920
His work became extremely popular as people greatly appreciated the time
and effort put into his jewellery.
The success of the brand escalated rapidly around Europe, opening stores
in Berlin, Stockholm, Paris and London.
1924
Following from the success of opening stores across Europe, the brand
continued growing and the first US store opened in New York.
1935
The Georg Jensen brand had become well established and was a global
success, well known around the world as high end art deco jewellery, Jensen
continued his legacy all the way up to when he died in October 2nd
1935.
Work
and ideas
Jensens first products crafted from his workshop were jewellery
including bracelets, brooches, buckles, buttons, chains, hair clips, hair
combs, hat pins, necklaces, pendants, rings and stick pins. It was found that
back between 1908 and 1912 the most popular item was the silver crafted
brooches, most of the jewellery made was typically worn by Danish women at the
time.
Jensen was an extraordinary craftsman using silver, with such work
effort, time and appreciation going into everything he crafted. After
travelling to Italy Jensen saw the antique grape motifs found on Roman silver
bowls, and he instantly fell in love with the design, this inspired him to
craft his own versions of the antiques, the grape designs featured on all his
jewellery.
The design that was on Jensens brooches, have ever since featured the
same flowers, leaves and berries that were on the very first brooch crafted,
even as of today the brooches have the iconic designs.
Designs found in the Jensen archives revealed a sketch of the Georg
Jensen Jardiniere, which was an extremely lovely looking design and later
realised that it was never actually put into production. The sketch revealed
the design to all be made from sterling steel and also featured the iconic
grapes with stems and the base covered in the leaves.
In 2012 the sketches of the Jardiniere were put into practice by 5
craftsmen and women at the Georg Jensen silver smithy in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The project had over 900 hours of work put into it and the designers stayed
faithful to the original drawings, every berry and stem in exactly the same
position as in the sketch.
