Bing & Grøndahl Henning Koppel Blue Oval Serving Tray No 38

Henning Koppel was a Copenhagen native who joined Georg Jensen Kompagniet when he was 27 years old. He had just returned to Denmark from Sweden, where he had fled as a Jew to escape the German occupation of Denmark. He trained as an artist and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Academie Rancon in Paris. From the beginning, his silver work was abstract and sculptural. His early designs were for jewelry. In the late 40s, Koppeli began designing bodies instead and his work has a sculptural quality that goes back to his training as a sculptor. In 1957, Koppel created the Carvel pattern of cutlery, considered by some to be the most beautiful silver pattern created in modern times. In 1963, he won the prestigious Der Goldene Loffel award. Throughout his career, his designs, whether it was jewelry, cutlery or corpus, were a radical departure from all the Jensen designers that went before. From the ornate, nature-inspired designs of Jensen himself to Sigvaard Bernadotte's austere, functionalist designs, Koppel's was highly original and modern art. This attracted international attention and put Georg Jensen at the forefront of the Scandinavian modern design movement. Koppel also designed porcelain pieces for Bing and Grondahl, candles and clocks for Louis Poulsen & Co, glass for Kastrup and Orrefors and furniture for Kventy and Sonner. His work earned him a reputation as the leading Danish silver craftsman. He won many awards: the Lunning Prize in 1953, gold medals from the Milan Triennale in 1951, 1954 and 1957 and the International Design Award from the American Institute of Interior Designers in 1963. For Georg Jensen's 75th anniversary, he was commissioned to design a limited series of prints. The lithographs are made by Hostrup-Pedersen and Johansen, numbered and signed by Henning Koppel