New Vegetable Dish

As most of Georg Jensen’s designs this serving piece is in the Art Nouveau style with the characteristic ornamental curved lines, organic structures, decorative ornaments of flora and fauna, and the use of honest and skilfully crafted materials. As typical for Georg Jensen’s pieces the decoration is concentrated on the top of the lid and to the handles.

Serving dish 2A is decorated with the Magnolia bud so very characteristic for Georg Jensen. The Magnolia has been in production from the beginning and its popularity is still growing. The flower bud was inspired by Japanese art, which uses the magnolia bud as a symbol of the month of May. The Magnolia – like the bunch of grapes - has become a symbol of the beautifully exuberant design of the founder of the company.

The metal spinner starts out by raising the bowl and the lid of the serving dish from flat sheets of silver. When the centre of the lid has been raised, the chaser makes the motive underneath the floral decoration with his/her fine hammer and punches and then applies the hammer marks. The silversmith makes the hammer marks on the dish while the chaser hammers the lid. To ensure that the overall impression is the same the two craftsmen co-ordinate that their hammer marks are applied with the same strength and in the same pattern so that the look is soft and harmonious.

The silversmith will build up the floral decoration on top of the lid piece by piece:

Each lid is fitted especially for each dish. When the hammer marks are applied the silver will stretch slightly and therefore each dish will vary. It may be just 1 mm or less but it is enough for the lid not to fit perfectly unless it is fitted especially for the dish. The handles on Dish 2A also have the Magnolia blossom decoration in between the bowl and the strong solid rim of silver. The handle alone consists of 21 pieces.