Just Andersen Denmark Sterling Silver Leaves Brooch & Earrings Set - Circa 1930s

Measurements: Brooch 2.75"L x 1"W ( 6.99cm x 2.54cm)

Earrings 1"L x .5"W (2.54cm x 1.27cm)

Markings: Just A - Danmark - 925 - Sterling - 680 - 704

Weight: 30g

A beautiful and increasingly hard-to-find sterling silver brooch and earrings set by renowned Danish designer Just Andersen, dating to the 1930s.

This elegant demi-parure features a graceful stylized leaf design, rendered in softly sculptural sterling silver with a refined balance of smooth surfaces and crisp linear detailing. The brooch has a flowing, elongated silhouette, while the matching earrings echo the same naturalistic leaf motif in a smaller scale, creating a cohesive and highly wearable set.

The design beautifully captures the transition between Art Deco elegance and the streamlined organic forms that would come to define Scandinavian modernism. The overall effect is sophisticated, understated, and distinctly Danish.

The set is in excellent vintage condition with no dings or dents and only very minor wear consistent with age. The entire set has been professionally cleaned and polished by a jeweler. The earrings have been thoughtfully converted to pierced/post-back style using sterling silver 925 posts and backs for ease of modern wear.

Also included with purchase is a silver brooch-to-pendant converter, allowing the brooch to be worn as a pendant if desired.

Just Andersen (1884–1943) was one of Denmark’s most important 20th-century designers, celebrated for his work in jewelry, silver, pewter, and his proprietary alloy known as Disko metal. He opened his own workshop in 1918 and became known for designs that bridged sculptural artistry with wearable form. By the late 1920s and 1930s, Andersen’s work increasingly reflected simplified Nordic forms and a more streamlined aesthetic, making his jewelry especially appealing to collectors of Danish design, Art Deco, and early Scandinavian modernism.

A rare and elegant collector’s set that would make a superb addition to any vintage Scandinavian jewelry collection.

Just Andersen started making jewellery In his own workshop in 1918, having received a kickstart from Mogens Ballin with a 3 year project to decorate an altar in Copenhagen. He produced beautiful figural sculptures in gold as pieces of jewellery, but they were of course very expensive, and so he also started working in silver and pewter and "Disko", an alloy which he discovered himself. His pewter hollowware from that period commands very high prices today.
At the end of the 1920s, Just Andersen started to move from individual ‘unica' pieces to a more streamlined production method, collaborating with a Swedish goldsmith and introducing pieces inspired by the simple forms of Nordic pre-historic jewellery. (Source: Jacob Thage, Danish Jewellery, 1990)
Just Andersen died in 1943, but his workshop continued under the management of his widow and Ellen Schlanbusch (1902-2005) who worked for the company for a total of 50 years, and who became artistic director. Karen Strand, Arje Griegst and Jane Wiberg were all apprentices in the post-war period. The company closed in 1973. (Source:Vibeke Marssoe)