The jewellery firm Süddeutsche Gold und Haar-Bijourterie, founded in 1907 by Heinrich Henkel and Florentin Grosse, experienced after World War I its first successes with costume jewellery made of bronze, aluminium, wood, bakelite and galalite. In the mid 1920s their first business contacts to the US were established. A decade later they were working together with the fashion labels Lanvin and Schiaparelli in Paris as well as with Harrods in London and Saks in New York. The company was awarded the diplome d'honneur for their designs in 1937 at the 'Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' in Paris. In 1955 Henkel & Grosse started its cooperation with Christian Dior (1905-57) in Paris and were licensed as the sole producers and distributors of Dior jewellery.

In connection with its own designs, however, the company always maintained its independence. As of the 1960s they expanded their portfolio to include Grosse Bijoux, Grosse Sterling and Grosse Gold, with fashion always dictating the design. Brooches, necklaces and ear clips in colourful, fanciful blossom forms to match the petticoat dresses of the time were produced in sets in various price classes for a wide customer base.

The enterprise, led by four generations of the Grosse family, had at its zenith over 600 employees and a worldwide distribution. Their products were designed and produced in Pforzheim and in the US, later also in Asia. The Dior and Grosse trademark, which every piece carries, stands for modern design and technical innovation. In 2006 the family withdrew from the business and the firm became part of the Dior group.

 

Since the beginning of his creative work in 1980, Georg Dobler, the jewellery artist and lecturer at the University of Applied Arts and Science in Hildesheim, has engaged in working with geometrical forms. Also in the mid1980s, when he first drew on naturalistic elements, provoking an outcry in the jewellery world, his work was still bound by geometrical forms. It was exactly because naturalism was viewed as outmoded, however, that Dobler was viewed as a pioneer by the next generation of studio jewellery designers.
The artist complements his casts from nature (exotic plants and beetles) – Dobler sees himself as a collector of structures and forms – with large, facetted stones as an artistic addition. Yellow to orange-glowing lemon citrine and tender lilac amethysts combine with the metal surfaces to create a shimmering play of colours. Pure silver shine is seldom found in Dobler’s work; his trademark is rather black chromium or oxidized silver surfaces that shine in iridescent black. Georg Dobler is not only a pioneer, he also finds inspiration among the great artists of early modern art. Thus in the mid1990s he drew on the abstract paintings of a Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky or Kazimir Malevich, who ignited his fantasy and inspired his compositions.
“Georg Dobler: Jewellery 1980–2010” spans the œuvre of the Berlin jewellery artist from the early 1980s to the present. A breath-taking journey from geometrical forms to casts from nature, works with stones to his current work, which unite the entire creative work of the artist in a grand symbiosis.
Authors: Cornelie Holzach | Rüdiger Joppien | Christianne Weber | Hildegard Wiewelhove | Barbara Maas | Helen Drutt
Exhibition in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, November/December 2010 and further venues in Pforzheim, Hanau, Bielefeld and Berlin, 2011.