Origins & Legacy of Art Jewellery in South Africa
Timed Online Auction, 6 - 22 October 2025
Origins
About the SessionOrigins, explores the emergence of South African fine metal artistry through pioneering immigrant goldsmiths and jewellers such as Erich Frey, Peter Cullman, Margaret Richardson, Elsa Wongchowsky, Tessa Fleischer and Birger Haglund. Many were drawn to South Africa after the Second World War, seeking opportunities to establish workshops. Their training in European institutions, such as Pforzheim, equipped them with modernist principles and technical expertise. Their works embodied modernist aesthetics while adapting to local contexts. They experimented with form, texture, and materiality, linking jewellery to broader artistic movements.
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Notes
Kurt Jobst was born in Switzerland into a culturally progressive family.
In 1935 he relocated to South Africa and established 'The Jobst Shop' in Johannesburg. He was a master metalworker across many disciplines- silversmithing, goldsmithing, enamel, engraving, woodcarving, wrought iron and stained glass. His design aesthetic reflected classical, timeless elegance, adapted to South African cultural and material contexts. Preferring clean lines and restrained decoration, he avoided the overworked ornamentation that was fashionable at the time. Jobst marked his pieces with linked letters 'Jk', his surname, and sometimes a stylised unicorn.
He taught at the Wits Technical College School for Arts and Crafts and trained both white and black apprentices in his studio workshop which was a daring political stance during the apartheid era.
He died in a car accident in 1971, leaving behind an enduring legacy that remains admired and collected today.
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