UPDATE May 2017: For Scandinavian silver pieces currently in my Etsy shop, please click here.
I seem to be sourcing more and more pieces of 20th century Scandinavian silver jewellery for my shop. I started off with the idea of stocking early 20th century pieces – English Arts and Crafts, Germanic Jugendstil and Nordic Skønvirke jewellery, but gradually my eye was drawn towards the sleek, minimalist lines of mid century Scandinavian modernist jewellery as well.
A few of the pieces of Scandinavian jewellery for sale in my Etsy shop. Click on photo to see my current selection of Scandinavian jewellery and silver objects.
At the moment I have 40 pieces of Scandinavian silver for sale in my Etsy shop, and more to come that I haven’t got round to listing yet!
I love enamel jewellery. Here are the enamel pieces for sale in my Etsy shop at the moment:
Enamel jewellery for sale in my Etsy shop. Click on the photo to see them all.
And despite the fact that orange is my favourite colour, it seems curious that every single piece of enamel jewellery I have in stock is either blue, green or white (with just a tiny hint of other colours in the fruit and flower basket brooch, the Horus brooch and the pansy brooch).
Hmm, I think I’m going to have to go on a zingy colours spending spree!
December 2016 update: I always seem to have Viking ship jewellery in my shop. Click here to see the current selection.
More by accident than design—and a very happy accident at that—I have three Viking ship brooches in my Etsy shop at the moment. I think they show longships, as opposed to the other kinds of Viking sea-going vessels.
Fabulous David-Andersen Viking ship brooch, dated to between 1924 and 1939. For sale in my Etsy shop: click photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
The jewel in the crown is an exquisite silver and enamel brooch by the renowned Norwegian firm of David-Andersen. The craftsmanship in this piece is stunning, and shows why David-Andersen enamelwork is so highly thought of.
The brooch can be dated quite closely to between 1924 and 1939, as the combination of 925 (sterling) silver and a particular form of the maker’s mark for the company was only used in this period. This brooch design is rarely seen and so is highly collectable.
The second Viking ship brooch dates from 1946 and was made by the Birmingham firm of Shipton and Co. It is solid sterling silver and was hallmarked in Chester (I wonder why a Birmingham firm didn’t send their silver to the Birmingham Assay Office to be hallmarked, rather than the Chester one?). It is very reminiscent of the popular Iona silver Celtic-style jewellery, made famous by designer Alexander Ritchie:
Sold sterling silver Viking ship brooch, made by Shipton & Co of Birmingham and hallmarked 1946 in Chester. For sale in my Etsy shop: click photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
The third brooch is also the youngest one: it was made by famous silversmith Malcolm Gray of the Ortak silversmithing firm on the Orkney Islands, and hallmarked at the Edinburgh Assay Office in 1981:
Sterling silver Viking longship brooch by Malcolm Gray of Ortak, hallmarked Edinburgh 1981. For sale in my Etsy shop: click photo for details. (NOW SOLD). September 2015 update: I have another of these for sale, also from 1981. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
This brooch is also solid sterling silver. The hallmarks and Gray’s maker’s mark are tiny, and barely visible among the textured dimples on the back of the brooch. The choice of subject matter is a fitting one, for the Vikings were an integral part of the history of these islands. The people of the Shetland Islands, north of the Orkneys, remember their Viking heritage every year with the Up Helly Aa festivals, and one day Chap and I are going to make it up there to see the festivities.
Update 22 June 2015: I have a new Viking ship brooch, by Aksel Holmsen of Norway, and dating from the 1930s:
Viking ship brooch in 830 silver, by Aksel Holmsen of Norway. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
Malcolm Gray Ortak sterling silver Viking ship brooch, 1975. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
September 2015 update. A couple more Viking ship brooches:
A Shetland Silvercraft brooch from 1968:
Sterling silver Viking ship brooch by Shetland Silvercraft, 1968. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
and a tiny mystery:
Tiny enamel and sterling silver Viking brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop: click on photos for details. (NOW SOLD).
And finally, I just had to end with a clip from a great Saturday tea-time favourite film of mine when I was a kid: The Vikings (1958), starring Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Ernest Borgnine.
I have favourite types of jewellery in my Etsy shop, and they come and go in phases. At the moment, I’m in a Norwegian enamel phase. There’s something about the crispness and craftsmanship in these pretty enamelled brooches. Plus, an extra bonus for me is that they are often based on designs from nature. They all date from the 1950s:
Aksel Holmsen enamel and silver with vermeil brooch, often called the ‘lily of the valley’ design. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).
Hroar Prydz enamel and silver with vermeil butterfly brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).
David-Andersen enamel and silver with vermeil leaf brooch. For sale in my Etsy shop. (NOW SOLD).
David Andersen teal enamel and sterling silver ring, for sale in my Etsy shop. Click on photo for details. (NOW SOLD).
Hroar Prydz enamel and silver with vermeil butterfly earrings. (NOW SOLD).
UPDATE: For an up-to-date list of the Norwegian enamel for sale in my Etsy shop, including an enamelled sølje brooch,see here.
Norwegian jewellers have been producing enamelled pieces since the early 20th century. Probably the most famous jeweller is the firm of David-Andersen, with other notable jewellers who worked with enamel including (in alphabetical order) Marius Hammer, Kristian M Hestenes, O F Hjortdahl, Aksel Holmsen, Ivar T Holth, Finn Jensen, Bernard Meldahl, Einar Modahl, Hans Myrhe, Arne Nordlie, OPRO, Hroar Prydz, and J Tostrup.
Of all the designs, I like the butterfly brooches the most, and of those, the David-Andersen ones are stunning. I hope one day to catch one of those little beauties for my shop: until then I will have to suffice with drooling over those belonging to others:
David-Andersen enamel and silver with vermeil butterfly brooch, c. 1950. Sold at Tadema Gallery. I WANT THIS!
David-Andersen enamel and silver with vermeil butterfly brooch, c. 1950. For sale at Ruby Lane.
I’m not quite sure how or why this happened, but recently I seem to have been accumulating tiny pieces of jewellery in my Etsy shop. First up was a pretty Edwardian brooch with Persian turquoises, which is a squitchy 23 mm (9/10 inch) across its widest point.
Tiny Edwardian Persian turquoise and silver brooch. (NOW SOLD).
Just recently I bought an even tinier brooch: a pretty little sterling silver pin with an Art Nouveau design of leaves and a daisy-like flower. It measures 18 mm (7/10 inch) across by 12 mm (just under 1/2 inch) high. (Update: a kind lady on Etsy has since told me it’s a letter ‘C’ brooch – which of course it is! I wondered why it had that strange cut-off ‘top’ edge …. Turn it through 90 degrees and suddenly it makes sense. As Homer Simpson would say, ‘Doh!’. She also thinks it’s by Ortak, the jewellery makers up in the Orkney Isles in the far north of Scotland.)
Vintage tiny William Morris design sterling silver brooch forming a letter ‘C’, and made by Ortak in the 1970s. (NOW SOLD).
But the titchiest of all are the sweet little Hroar Prydz enamel and silver butterfly earrings I bought a few weeks ago. These little Norwegian beauties are so wee: each butterfly measures just 15 mm (6/10 inch) across at its widest part. Considering their size, the level of detailing in them is amazing.
Hroar Prydz enamel and silver butterfly earrings. (NOW SOLD).
I wonder if it’s something to do with having watched the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage the other day? I love that film!
