The unknown Georg Jensen

This book is about the many lesser known or unknown sides of Georg Jensen's great life work. The reader is taken through the first important periods of his life: as sculptor and as potter and modeller with many details, and his artistic development up til the establishment of his silversmithy in 1904 is described. The book tells of the first laborious years as silversmith, the breakthrough in 1904 at the autumn exhibition af the Danish Museum for Decorative Art, and the comet-like carreer to fame, resulting in gold medal at the World's Fair in Bruxelles in 1910. The spectacular but quite unknown collaboration with architect Anton Rosen, that resulted in a large order to Georg Jensen to produce all silverware for the Palace Hotel in Copenhagen 1909, is researched and presented for the first time. A chapter tells about the years 1924-26, when Georg Jensen emigrated to Paris and started all over with a new, small silversmithy of his own. The book concludes with a chapter about his last ten years, when he lived in Hellerup, Denmark, and produced most of his designs in his own silversmithy in his basement.

Georg Jensen's life was like a fairy tale. The book tells about his victories and disappointments, and about his creativity and his powerlessness.

The complete listings and illustrations of the works he did for P. Ipsen's Widow's Terracotta Factory (23 models) and Palace Hotel (illustrated with Georg Jensen's drawings) have never before been collected, and they are very useful for colectors and admireres of Georg Jensen's art. The outlines of stamps and marks have much more information than any previous outlines, and also give practical and useful tips.

The book has more than 130 illustrations, and most of these have not been printed previously. The photograph of Georg Jensen with his sons Vidar and Jørgen is moving, and the photo of a very malancholic Georg Jensen at the 25th anniversary of the silversmithy in 1929 is thought-provoking.

This book contains a lot of information that is not available anywhere else, and it is a necessesary publication for everyone who loves Georg Jensen's art.