Bgc Jewelry

For over a century, Georg Jensen has produced some of the finest objects in Scandinavian modern design, including silver tableware, serving pieces, home decor, jewelry and more, frequently partnering with leading artisans to expand its offerings and respond to shifting tastes. Known for minimal aesthetics that reference nature, the craftsmanship of this legendary Danish silverware firm has regularly married function with thoughtful and beautiful design.

Founder Georg Jensen (1866–1935) was born in the small town of Radvaad, Denmark, and began his training as a goldsmith at 14. After studying sculpture and then training with master silversmith Mogens Ballin, he established his own silver business in Copenhagen in 1904. By 1918, the company was successful enough to open a shop in Paris.

Jensen’s firm produced an incredibly vast range of silver objects, from serving dishes and barware to centerpieces and chandeliers. For his early work, which bore ornate floral details and other organic forms of Art Nouveau, Jensen looked to the splendors of the natural world. The 1905 Blossom teapot, for instance, was topped with a magnolia bud and deftly balanced on toad feet, while some of Jensen’s best-known flatware patterns included Lily of the Valley, introduced in 1913, and Acorn, which debuted in 1915.

Collaboration with outside designers, long before such partnerships were common in design, would lead to some of the company’s most popular and enduring work of the mid-century. Sigvard Bernadotte and Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe created collections, as did Henning Koppel, whose curvy 1952 Pregnant Duck pitcher is a Georg Jensen classic.

After evolving and expanding throughout the 20th century, Georg Jensen was acquired by Investcorp in 2012. Today, the company is a global luxury brand with more than 1,000 stores around the world. It continues to produce seductive new pieces, such as a tea service made with Marc Newson in 2015, as well as timeless heritage designs, including the relaunch in 2019 of the 1018 solid sterling-silver Tureen 270. In 2020, the firm introduced the Jardinière 1505. Sculptural and richly decorative, the never-before-realized showpiece is hand-hammered from sheets of the finest sterling silver and is based on a 1915 sketch from Jensen’s archives.

Find an exquisite collection of Georg Jensen serveware, ceramics, silver and glass today on 1stDibs.

Vintage choker necklaces are elegant, alluring and stylish. Cameos, pearls, diamonds and other stones can decorate these necklaces, which come in single or multiple strands. Whether it is a statement piece or a delicate chain, these short necklaces always stand out and turn heads.

The history of the choker can be traced back thousands of years, with Sumerian examples discovered from 2600–2500 B.C. They endured as a popular form of adornment through the centuries, and during the French Revolution they took on a symbolic significance. Women wore ribbons around their throats to mark the passing of those killed by the guillotine. Soon, the plain ribbons were adorned with small cameos and other ornamentation.

European choker necklaces gained a salacious reputation in the 19th century when prostitutes were associated with black ribbons tied around the neck, such as the model in Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863). Queen Alexandra, Princess of Wales, reversed the trend in the late 19th century by wearing a large pearl and diamond choker, reputedly to hide a scar.

Fashioned from gold, pearls and other precious stones and metals, chokers continued to be worn into the 20th century, alternately statements of wealth and rebellion. They experienced periods of revival in the 1920s, ’40s, ’70s and ’90s for both men and women.

Vintage chokers make a statement with an unmistakable air of femininity. On 1stDibs, find an alluring collection of vintage chokers today, including gold, sapphire and emerald chokers.