GUNDOLPH ALBERTUS (1887 - 1970)

Gundolph Albertus worked for the Georg Jensen Silversmithy for 40 years. From 1926 to 1954 he was the assistant director and as such, supervised the company's production making sure that all pieces produced met his high standards of craftsmanship. He began his career in 1905, as a chaser the craftsmen who put ornamental lines and shapes on silver objects). From 1908 to 1911 he studied silversmithing in Munich and Paris and when he returned to Denmark he worked as a chaser at the Georg Jensen silversmithy also studying sculpture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from which he graduated in 1915.

Albertus became Georg Jensen's brother in law when he married Jensen's wife Johanne's sister. (Mrs. Albertus was also the sister of Harald Nielsen the artistic director of the Silversmithy after Jensen's death in 1935. Nielsen and Albertus worked together for many years.

In addition to overseeing all the Silversmithy production, Albertus also designed jewelry, flatware and hollowware. In particular, in 1930 he designed the ever popular flatware pattern, CACTUS,in 1940, created BITTERSWEET, and in 1941, the first stainless flatware pattern, MITRA which was produced by Georg Jensen because of the wartime shortage of silver.

Albertus designed cups, bowls, dishes, trays and cocktail shakers many of which have stylized floral motifs similar to the Cactus design. Much of his holloware from the 1930s has very sleek modern shapes with floral ornmentation and can be seen as a transition from the early heavily ornamented designs to the more clean, virtually unornamented designs of the later years.

He was represented in many exhibitions especially in Denmark and France and received a gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1925 and a diplome d'honneur at the 1937 international exposition in Paris.

From GEORG JENSEN HOLLOWWARE, THE SILVERFUND COLLECTION, David A. Taylor & Jason W. Laskey, 2003

Click HERE to see Cactus, designed by Gundolph Albertus

Click HERE to see Bittersweet, designed by Gundolph Albertus

Click HERE to see Mitra, designed by Gundolph Albertus