Makers & Designers

Strauss & Co’s decorative arts department has handled a worldly list of makers and designers specialising in furniture making, jewellery, silver, glass, porcelain and other artisanal trades.

Strauss & Co’s decorative arts department has handled a worldly list of makers and designers specialising in furniture making, jewellery, silver, glass, porcelain and other artisanal trades. This searchable database lists prominent makers and designers sold by Strauss & Co, including René Lalique, Gio Ponti, Patrick Mavros, as well as coveted houses like The Barnards and Tiffany & Co.


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Else Wongtschowsky

Germany-South Africa 1914 - 

Else Wongtschowsky was born in 1914 in Germany. As a Jewish woman, born in the Nazi era, she was barred from her chosen career as a medical doctor and so shifted her path towards metal arts.

In the 1930s she fled Germany and settled in South Africa where she became a notable figure among immigrant goldsmiths who shaped the South African jewellery design landscape in the mid-twentieth century.

She initially worked in the studio of fellow jeweller Kurt Jobst before establishing her own practice. Her work is closely associated with the 'Safari jewellery' movement that emerged in South Africa in the 1950s and which blended indigenous themes with modernist form. Her style incorporated stylized representations of South African flora, fauna and indigenous art.

We have not offered any works by Else Wongtschowsky at auction

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