1 • used 1904 ~ 1908
2 • used 1909 ~ 1914
3 • circa 1910 ~ 1925
4 • used 1915 ~ 1930
5 • used 1915 ~ 1927
(raised lettering)
6 • used 1925 ~ 1932
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7 • used c.1930s
(engraved mark used on holloware)
8 • used 1933 ~ 1944
9 • used 1945 ~ 1951
(on items retailed in Copenhagen)
10 • used 1945 ~ Present
(incuse lettering)
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On occasion, designer's marks are found alongside the Jensen maker's mark.
Some of the firm's more notable designers include:
 | Johan Rohde (1856-1935) |
 | Gundorph Albertus (1887-1970) |
 | Harald Nielsen (1892-1977) |
 | Arno Malinowski (1899-1976) |
 | Sigvard Bernadotte (1907-2002) |
 | Henning Koppel (1918-1981) |
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 | Bent Gabrielsen (b.1928) |
 | Nanna & Jorgen Ditzel (JD - d.1961) |
 | Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005) |
 | Vivianna Torun Bulow-Hube (1927-2004) |
 | Allan Scharff (b.1940) with JG from 1987 |
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GEORG JENSEN
Born into a working class family in the town of Raadvad just to the north of Copenhagen in 1866, Jensen was son of a knife grinder.
He began his training in goldsmithing at the age of 14 in Copenhagen. His apprenticeship, with the firm Guldsmet Andersen, ended in 1884 and this freed the young Jensen to follow his artistic interests.
From childhood, Jensen had aspired to be a sculptor and he now pursued this course of study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He graduated in 1892 and began exhibiting his work. Although his clay sculptures were well received, making a living as a fine artist proved difficult and he turned his hand back to the applied arts. First as a modeller at the Bing & Grondahl porcelain factory and, beginning in 1898, with a small pottery workshop he founded in partnership with Christian Petersen. Again the work was well received, but sales were not strong enough to support Jensen, by this point a widower raising two small sons.
In 1901, he abandoned ceramics and began again as a silversmith and designer with the master, Mogens Ballin. This led Jensen to make a landmark decision, when in 1904, he risked what small capital he had and opened his own little silversmithy at 36 Bredegade in Copenhagen.
Jensen's training in metalsmithing, along with his education and experience in the fine arts, allowed him to combine the two disciplines and revivify the tradition of the artist craftsman. Soon, the beauty and fine quality of his Art Nouveau creations caught the eye of the public and his success became assured. The Copenhagen quarters were greatly expanded and before the close of the 1920's, Jensen had opened retail outlets as far ranging as New York, London, Paris, Stockholm, Berlin and Buenos Aires.
Georg Jensen died in 1935, but in the preceding years he imbued the firm with his strongly held ideals concerning both artistry in design and excellence in craftmanship, this tradition has been adhered to throughout the 20th century. Although Jensen himself was a proponent of the Art Nouveau style, he had the wisdom and foresight to allow his designers their own freedom of expression which expanded the stylistic scope of what the firm produced and allowed it to keep step with time.
Georg Jensen Flatware Patterns
1906 ~ 1966 • Illustrated Index
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Sources:
Georg Jensen Silversmithy, 77 Artists, 75 Years
Erik Lassen, Smithsonian Institution, 1980
Georg Jensen, Silver & Design
Thomas C. Thulstrup, Gads Forlag 2004
Georg Jensen, Holloware
David A. Taylor & Jason W. Laskey, The Silverfund 2003
Dansk Smykker / Danish Jewelry
Jacob Thage, Komma & Clausen 1990
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