COMMITTED TO LIFE-LONG LEARNING AND POSITIVE CHANGE?
Instantly create your own personal and spiritual growth library with 18 self help workbooks and email programs to master basic skills, empower your personality and grow spiritually.

Send me One Million FREE Guaranteed Visitors

Georg Jensen.

Milo Naeve Reviews Georg Jensen:
Holloware, The Silver Fund Collection

David A. Taylor and James W. Laskey have not written a book about American silver, but they confirm with authority the American debt to Danish design. The silver and gold artifacts available for Georg Jensen: Holloware, The Silver Fund Collection reveals, for example, that William G. DeMatteo (1895-1980) understandably was inspired by Jensen designs in sales through the shop loosely associated with the Jensen firm in New York City, and that Peer Smed (ca. 1878-1943), also active in New York City, usually eschewed repetition of the firm’s designs for creative interpretations of the silversmith’s general aesthetic. These declarations will not astonish many readers.

The firm’s influence on American silver has been widely recognized for at least a generation. But even informed readers will be surprised by the impact of 800 illustrations in a book of 404 pages. ¹The survey, dating from 1905 to 1999, and the most comprehensive and authoritative published, should not be overlooked by students of American silver. Design in America before World War II, for example, is revealed as sometimes one generation, sometimes two, behind Jensen’s innovations.

The book offers more than an ambitious record of Jensen’s silver and gold mainly in a private collection. It also presents new and reliable information about the barrier of the Danish language for most Americans and made intelligent use of publications and interviews among people connected with the firm and the designers for it.

Their research reveals that the firm today bears no direct link with George Jensen (1866-1935), and the association with the craftsman and his family has been intermittent over a century. A chronicle of the firm in the “Introduction” (pages 15-26) reveals that Jensen founded it in 1904. Trained as a goldsmith, he studied sculpture, as well as ceramics, and opened a shop with only an apprentice for supporting his family by making silver jewelry. Holloware became a staple within two years and flatware in four years. Steadily expanding, Jensen formed a company in 1916. He left three years later. Jensen returned to the firm in 1926 and held a loose relationship with it until he died in 1935.

The “Introduction” also traces the international presence of the firm from its earliest years under Jensen. German clients, for instance, bought ninety percent of production in 1914 (page 17).

The first contact of the firm with the United States was at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition at San Francisco in 1915 (page 17). The European depression after World War I forced energetic development of the American market. For publicity, exhibitions of Jensen silver were in prestigious shops across the United States and in museums, such as the Art Institute of Chicago in 1921 (page 18, page 370, note 11). The first store opened in New York City in 1924 (page 18). Through it and concessions in shops over the United States, the name “Jensen” became well known to consumers and craftsmen.²

The names of designers became almost as familiar. Jensen continued his first employer’s practice by often identifying designers by initials or name. Some contemporary firms in the United States, such as Tiffany, Gorham, or Kalo, marked silver only with their names, while Arthur Stone consistently acknowledged men participating in production.

Authors complement caption identification of designers by inserting in the text a succinct biography as close as possible to the first caption reference to a designer. This inventive plan allows readers to study the relationship between silver by the same designer, compare or contrast silver by different designers, and consider influences on designers.

A section at the end of the book is entitled “Holloware Details” (pages 374-395). It lists by page numbers the names of illustrated objects, pattern numbers, dates introduced, designers, measurements, and weights. The clear and convenient method removes details, essential for specialists, from the main text and permits visual emphasis there on style.

Other parts of the book support the text. They include essays about the silversmiths, an explanation of marks, a bibliography, and a practical index. Documentation for the text is adequate; some readers will miss sources for dates of objects, but their integrity can be assumed by the care with which unknown dates are qualified by a conservative “ca”.

Illustrations are a significant feature of the book. Every object is published in color. The photographer is Matt Pia. He achieves a high standard of clarity despite the challenge of reflections and is well served by the printer, Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon of Belgium. The size and placement of illustrations are appropriate for the size, complexity, and significance of objects. Despite these considerations, page design is appealing.

A book of this significance could only be the result of efforts by many people. Taylor and Laskey are generous in acknowledging them. But the role of Taylor and Laskey in research, organization of countless details, and writing must not be overlooked.

Taylor and Laskey are responsible for an excellent study of Danish enterprise. The publication is privately published by a firm dedicated to selling Jensen’s silver in New York City or London, yet it is admirably discrete about the commercial objective. The book is essential on many levels for understanding American taste.

¹ Michael James, co-founder and co-director of The Silver Fund, kindly provided the number of illustrations (Interview by the Author, July 7, 2004).

² Alastair Crawford, co-founder and co director of The Silver Fund, stresses the significance of widespread shop concessions, as well as exhibitions (Interview by the Author, June 26, 2004).

³ I am grateful to Jason Lasky for this information (Interview by the Author, July 7, 2004).