Makers & Designers

Active c.1830-1877

Fredrik David Waldek, born in the Cape, was the son of Johannes Waldek of Immenhausen in Hesse-Kassel and Dorothea Florentina Jensen (or Jansen) of the Cape. He began his career in 1830 as a chronometer and clockmaker at 99 Long Street, later working from various prominent addresses in Cape Town over a span of nearly five decades. From 1834 to 1835, he was based at 4 Hout Street, and then moved to 30 Heerengracht (1836–1840), where he also worked as a jeweller and manufacturer of plate and jewellery. Between 1841 and 1850, he operated from both Herman Cottage, 2 Hof Street, and 31 Heerengracht. He then continued his trade from 7 Adderley Street (1851–1853), 30 Adderley Street at the corner of Wale Street (1854–1855 and again 1857–1862), and 30 St Georges Street in 1856. From 1863 to 1868, he worked at 64 St Georges Street, followed by 4 Wale Street (1869–1871), 42 Long Street (1872), and finally from Garden “Waterhof” (1873–1877). In addition to his extensive career, Waldek had two brothers, Jacobus Petrus and Christiaan Isaac, who were also jewellers; both died in their father’s house in Hout Street in 1837.