Georg Jensen Brooch #344

I purchased a sterling silver brooch by Georg Jensen on eBay last year, a gift for my valentine. It is design #344 and not especially common.

Design #344 with the post-1945 Georg Jensen hallmark

Georg Jensen
eBay listing ended October 20, 2024

https://www.ebay.com/itm/176631378071

Georg Jensen
eBay item description

Georg Jensen
eBay bid history
One bid with five seconds remaining. Your blogger hard at work for the sake of romance.

04877

Georg Jensen Sterling Brooch #4

It's unusual to find Georg Jensen's sterling silver brooch #4 anywhere. A rare, early example was sold on eBay late last year with an old GI hallmark, c. 1904-1908, in .826 silver. (Danish silversmiths began using .830 silver around 1911 and contemporary sterling is .925.) The brooch has a pair green agate cabochons.

Georg Jensen
eBay listing ended November 5, 2020

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Early-Georg-Jensen-Green-Agate-Sterling-Brooch-034-826-S-GJ-4-034-c-1904-1908-/353256098135?item=353256098135&ViewItem=&nma=true&si=WEtIFz5%252FkfY9UxP8WWeB%252FCaqeVQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Georg Jensen
eBay item description

Georg Jensen
eBay bid history
Thirty-nine bids, three in the last five seconds

03674

Georg Jensen Brooch #88 with Lapis

In September an example of Georg Jensen brooch #88 with a lapis lazuli cabochon was sold on eBay. The brooch is small and this design is not all that common, particularly with colored stones. It is sterling silver, of course, and bears the post-1945 hallmark with the name Georg Jensen in a dotted oval.

Georg Jensen
eBay Listing Ended September 20, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SCARCE-GEORG-JENSEN-STERLING-SILVER-PIN-BROOCH-88-WITH-LAPIS-/254326931629?ul_noapp=true&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Georg Jensen
eBay Item Description

Drucker Antiques has an example of this brooch design with an amethyst stone for $395. The photograph does not seem to capture the stone's color.

Georg Jensen brooch #88 with amethyst
Post-1945, .925 silver, Drucker Antiques

https://druckerantiques.com/shopexd.asp?id=475

An earlier example is all .830 silver with a silverstone:

Georg Jensen brooch #88 with silverstone
GI hallmark, .830 silver, trombone clasp

https://www.etsy.com/listing/466266544/antique-early-georg-jensen-pre-1945?item_group_id=PG_466266544

Georg Jensen brooch #88 with silver stone

GI hallmark, .830 silver, trombone clasp

https://www.etsy.com/listing/466266544/antique-early-georg-jensen-pre-1945?item_group_id=PG_466266544
  
      03153

Georg Jensen Brooch #69 with Blue Sapphire

Georg Jensen's brooch design #69 isn't all that frequently encountered today. I know of only a handful of examples, each predating the Second World War. One, just sold on eBay in September, reportedly has a cabochon of blue sapphire.

Tarnish imparts an interesting patina to Jensen silver and highlights the hand-hammered relief.

Identifying this stone as a blue sapphire seems reasonable, but labradorite might also be a possibility:

The hinged clasp with sliding closure mechanism:

The classic GI in a circle hallmark was used between 1915 and 1930. The .830 silver mark indicates that this piece predates the 1927 Jensen sterling standard (83% silver as opposed to 92.5%). Therefore this piece was made between seventeen and twenty-eight years before the gift engraving was added in 1943. During the war new Jensen silver was not obtainable from Denmark, so receiving a gift of this quality must have been something quite special.

"For U. B. from the Sanfords, 3-31-1943." Was U. B. marrying into the Sanford family?

The design number 69 is difficult to read.

Georg Jensen Brooch #69
eBay Listing Ended September 19, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1943-INSCRIBED-ART-DECO-GEORG-JENSEN-GI-DENMARK-830-SILVER-BROOCH-BLUE-SAPPHIRE-/223665178630?hash=item34137bc806%3Ag%3AnHsAAOSwRtpdd9eK&nma=true&si=YQGb25QThn5Fxe78BW8tTy6VzZY%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Georg Jensen Brooch #69
eBay Item Description

Georg Jensen
eBay Bid History
Four bids. The last one gets it.

The earliest example of this brooch that I know of has a cabochon of green agate. It is in .826 silver, which predates the .830, with the Copenhagen hallmark dating this piece to 1907-1914, but the rare GI hallmark suggests it is on the very early end of that. This was offered on eBay I believe in 2011. I did not record the asking price or whether it sold. The seller dated the piece to 1908-1912:

Note the layers: 

Another example of brooch #69 sold by Uniques & Antiques, Inc., of Aston, PA, has a cabochon of lapis lazuli. It sold for $175 in September, which means this rare brooch came up for sale at least twice in the same month.

The Georg Jensen in a dotted oval hallmark dates the piece to 1915-1919 when .830 silver was in use.

This stone certainly has the characteristic flecks of lapis:

The side view gives a sense of the complicated three-dimensional configuration of brooch design 69.

Another hinged clasp with sliding closure:

Georg Jensen Brooch #69
Uniques & Antiques, Inc.
September 9, 2019

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/en-gb/item/75220881_georg-jensen-830-silver-lapis-lazuli-pin-broach

The most recent example of this design is the only one in .925 sterling silver with a silver cabachon. It has what I take to be a prewar GI hallmark and is available today from Drucker Antiques of Mt. Kisco for $650.

Georg Jensen Brooch #69
Drucker Antiques

https://druckerantiques.com/shopexd.asp?id=660

Another example in sterling, probably similar to (or possibly identical to) the one with Drucker Antiques, was sold as part of a grouping by Rago Arts and Auctions of Lambertville, NJ. It is shown upside-down at the 2:00 position:

Five Georg Jensen brooches
Rago Arts and Auctions
June 9, 2017

https://www.lotsearch.de/lot/georg-jensen-denmark-five-sterling-brooches-28538276?page=9&orderBy=lot-title&order=ASC

Note:  I would like to know of other examples of George Jensen brooch #69, especially if they are significantly different from the above in some aspect.

03081