Georg Jensen Damask

Why it is renowned

Georg Jensen Damask is known for damask-woven tablecloths, napkins and tea towels. Its first recognition abroad came at the 1878 World Exhibition in Paris, where its damask tablecloths and napkins won a silver medal, and in 1885 it took a gold medal in the linen goods class at the exhibition at Alexandra Palace in London.¹ It has been purveyor to the Court of Denmark since 1992.²

Its collection holds designs by Arne Jacobsen, Cecilie Manz, John Becker, Bodil Bødtker-Næss, Jette Nevers and Bent Georg Jensen.³ The Arne Jacobsen collection was drawn from sketches the architect left at his death in 1971 and launched in 2002, the centenary of his birth.⁴

The story

The company dates its founding to 1756, when a family of weavers worked at Vævergården in Vonsild, near Kolding; the weaver Andreas Jensen had married into another local weaving family in 1752.² In 1910 Georg Jensen (1885–1939) opened a modern textile factory in Kolding.² The emblem of two weaverbirds at their nest was drawn in 1927 by the architect Knud V. Engelhardt, and since the early 1930s it has been woven into every piece.¹

Bent Georg Jensen, trained as a textile engineer in Borås in Sweden, became chief executive in 1947 at 24. He brought in the weavers Bodil Bødtker-Næss, John Becker and Vibeke Klint, bought automatic looms from England and jacquard looms from France, and opened a new factory building in 1993.⁵ He sold the company in 1999.² It is now a Danish family company owned by Anne and Jesper Hviid, and its archive keeps one example of every design it has woven.¹

What to know it by

• Sct. Knuds Ørne1926Damask tablecloth after the 11th-century eagle silk in Odense Cathedral
• Becker 63John BeckerTea towel
• Christmas tablecloth1975Bodil Bødtker-NæssDamask tablecloth
• Easter tablecloth1979Bodil Bødtker-NæssDamask tablecloth with a stylised hen and egg
• AbildBent Georg JensenStriped tea towel
• Arne Jacobsen collection2002Arne JacobsenTextiles from the architect's sketches