Skønvirke Jewelry, or Danish Art Nouveau

As I have mentioned before, skønvirke style appeared as a Danish interpretation of European Art Nouveau style in design and architecture. Common skønvirke features were floral patterns and design, organic shapes and natural curved lines. Skønvirke jewelry was usually made of silver and decorated with natural semi-precious stones as well as colored enamel.

The moral aspect behind skønvirke movement was the desire to go away from cheap bad quality mass produced jewelry and providing well made pieces for affordable price. This way, silversmiths tried to come up with a balance between quality and price, while providing unique jewelry garments.

Many Danish designers and artists followed the skønvirke movement, but there was one special person, who formed Danish silver style of the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Thorvald Bindesbøll (born in 1846) was an educated architect, but it never became his main occupation and source of income. We was interested in literature and translating, as well as arts. He developed passion for designing while travelling around Europe. At first he was designing ceramic pottery, as well as seldom pieces of furniture and books, but later he was influenced by Arts and Crafts movement, which originated in England in 1880's.

Thorvald Bindesbøll started designing a large amount of sketches for jewelry in skønvirke style. His jewelry had natural forms, and repeated shapes of flowers and plants. It was often decorated with colorful enamel or semi-precious stones. Because of the fact that Thorvald Bindesbøll didn't receive silversmith training himself, he had to cooperate with silvermiths to convert his designs from sketches into tangible items. The first silversmith who he worked with was Anton Michelsen, but the stongest connection was developed between Thorvald Bindesbøll and Holger Kyster, who also became artist's friend. Together they led Thorvald Bindesbøll's design ideas to success.

Thorvald Bindesbøll declined offers of mass producers and prefered for his jewelry to be hand made by trusted silversmiths. He strived for a personal touch to his garments and was insisting on the technique where traces of smithinjg were visible. His favourite motives were flower ornaments and other organic shapes such as sea shells and waves.

After Thornvald Bindesbøll's death in 1908, Holger Kyster proceeded to produce jewelry by Bindesbøll's sketches as well as jewelry, inspired by his overall style.