Elsebeth Haugård Silversmith Archive
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GUEST:
My mother was an apprentice at age 16 for Georg Jensen, the silversmith from Denmark.
APPRAISER:
And that was for five years.
GUEST:
For five years, yes. This is the apprentice piece that she made in order to become a silversmith. And...
APPRAISER:
And this right here is?
GUEST:
That's a certificate of completion of the five years of apprenticeship. And this piece, she received the bronze medal, and she was the first female silversmith certified in Denmark.
APPRAISER:
And that year was?
GUEST:
1933.
APPRAISER:
Here are the line drawings of the grapevine-pattern piece, which is a Georg Jensen covered vegetable bowl with the correct marking for 1933, which was the year she graduated. She had her own drawings to assist in the making of the piece.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Tell me a little bit about this letter.
GUEST:
That's a letter that Georg Jensen wrote, certifying that she had finished her apprenticeship, and recommending her and praising her for her hard work, and certifying that she would be a, a good person to hire if anybody was going to hire her.
APPRAISER:
What we have here is the book on the history of the Georg Jensen firm, and this particular picture is what we're looking at. Tell me about that picture.
GUEST:
It's a picture of the workshop in Copenhagen. You see Georg Jensen is standing here, and it's a workshop full of men. And if you look it's, it's hard to see, but if you see, there's a woman peeking out, and that's my mother. She's peeking out there.
APPRAISER:
The pieces here...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Tell me a little bit about these.
GUEST:
Well, the, the center necklace, that one there, that one was made in 1932, and that one has her initials and the, and the date. That was before she finished her apprenticeship.
APPRAISER:
The initials on this are "E.H."
GUEST:
"E.H."
APPRAISER:
Which, of course, match her name.
GUEST:
Go with Else... Elsebeth Haugaard. Yes.
APPRAISER:
Okay. And then the, the bracelet and necklace.
GUEST:
Those, I believe she made afterwards, while she was married, because the initials are "E.S." And that's for Elsebeth Stanness.
APPRAISER:
Okay, and she got married in?
GUEST:
I think in 1936.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
'37?
APPRAISER:
The bowl itself is a covered vegetable, and all silversmiths use different marks for different time periods. So the one Jensen mark which is in the center actually was started in 1933, coincidentally the year she graduated. The Jensen firm was founded in 1904. This pattern came out around 1925. This is the 408, and it came in a variety of sizes.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
I guess this was the masterpiece that your mom created...
GUEST:
Yes, yes.
APPRAISER:
...as, as her crowning project to become a silversmith.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
The retail value on something like this by itself, it'll vary from country to country because...
GUEST:
Yes, I know.
APPRAISER:
...probably it's more popular overseas than here in the United States.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And you'll see prices anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 for this. This happens to be earlier. Many of them are post-1945.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So this happens to be an earlier piece, which would command a little more premium.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
This is very attractive. And this on its own would probably be in the $2,000 to $3,000 price range. These being a little bit later, probably not as desirable, but still nice.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
This would probably be in the $1,500 to $2,000, this probably around $700 to $1,000. But when you look at the entire package-- first woman silversmith in Denmark...
GUEST:
Denmark.
APPRAISER:
A letter from Georg Jensen, an, an entire archive of drawings that she had done, the drawings for her masterpiece already in the book, it doesn't get a whole better than that for a silver collector. After talking to a couple of my colleagues, we would assume that there's, for sure, collectors out there worldwide...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
...that somewhere in the $30,000 to $35,000 range, your entire collection would be able to be sold.
GUEST:
That's...
APPRAISER:
It's, it's fabulous. It's incredible. It's, it's, it's a one of a kind. And what's so amazing is, for all of those years, the piece is in magnificent condition.
GUEST:
I know. She would be very happy.
APPRAISER:
Great, well, thank you so much.
GUEST:
Thank you.
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