Catalog (284)

Haku Maki did the months of the year in hiragana, not in Chinese characters which are also used for months in Japan. July しちがつ is an A.P. and measures 13.75in W x 5.75in H. An embossed print, it is in good condition. See August below.

Haku Maki did the months of the year in hiragana, not in Chinese characters also used for months in Japan. August はちがつ was created in 1977 and is number 53 of an edition of 202. It measures 13.75in wide x 5.75in high. It is in excellent condition.

Another Georg Jensen classic piece, this brooch, no 20, has a diameter of 1.75in (4.5cm). Bought in 1983, the brooch is in excellent condition. Truly a classic.

This round brooch with a heart cutout is called Hidden Heart. It is no 991 and is 18k gold. Designed by Vivianna Torun, on the back are printed 750, Georg Jensen in a circle of dots, Torun, 991, and Denmark.

This ring is another that I bought decades ago and that one almost never sees. I certainly have not seen one advertised or on a hand. It is a design that I feel resembles wrinkled cloth. According to Georg Jensen, it is no. 10351 and was designed by Gail Spence for Hans Hansen, a jewelry designer whose company later became a part of Georg Jensen. Inside it are printed the Georg Jensen mark in a circle of dots and 925S. There is something else very hard to decipher but my guess is that it’s HaH. The ring had emerged by 1997 when I bought it but even the Georg Jensen company cannot confirm the date of its first production. The company says the ring is no longer in production.

This ring is wide (1cm), indented on top, and laps over slightly onto the adjoining finger. It was designed by Nanna Ditzel. Inside the ring band are the Georg Jensen mark in a circle of dots, 925S Denmark, 227, and ND. The ring is US size 6. I bought it nearly 40 years ago (in 1985) so it may well be out of production.

Brooch no100B (sometimes referred to as no120) is a small design with two tulips and berries. Another vintage GJ piece, this brooch is also a classic that was produced after 1945, according to the Georg Jensen mark. Georg Jensen in a circle of dots, sterling Denmark, and 100B are on the back of the pin. The pin is 1.5in (4cm) long.

Georg Jensen with Christian Mohl Hansen designed this dove brooch, possibly because the world was at war when this one was produced. It is1.75 in at widest point , 1.5in high (4.25cm, 4cm). There are many GJ doves in existence but few that are as old as this one, which was produced more than 80 years ago. Printed on the back is the Georg Jensen mark used from 1933 to 1944. Printed there also are 925, sterling, Denmark, and the number 155.

This ring has been in my collection for decades, since 1980 in fact. It’s called Serenity but I’ve always called it my flattened egg ring. According to Georg Jensen archives, the ring was designed by Vivianna Torun Bülow-Hübe in 1974 (sometimes people accredit it to other designers). The ring is US size 6 but its design is very forgiving—it accommodates a larger finger. It is no longer in production.

This wonderful sleek brooch, designed by Henning Koppel for the Georg Jensen silversmithy 70 years ago, continues to attract attention in 2024. Produced in 1954, I bought it in the 1960s. It is no longer in production.

Haku Maki loved the kanji (Chinese character) for dragon—and he did it more than once. Both of the above—Work 73-14 A on the left and Work 73-12A—were done in 1973. Read about them in more detail below at stock numbers 1005 and 1039. NOTE: Those born in the Dragon year were born in 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024.

This print is Haku Maki’s 78-6 水Water, number 108 in an edition of 151. Earlier that year,1978, he had already produced dramatic single-kanji large black and white prints. The first two, 78-1 Mountain and 78-2 Water, both horizontal prints, were 17in W x 9.25in H. They were followed soon after by 78-6, also horizontal. But this depiction of the kanji for water is nearly twice the size of the previous two: his 78-6 is 32.5 inches wide and 17 inches high (83cm W X 43.5cm H). Hence, the drama of his black-and-white calligraphy is here even more pronounced. The print is embossed and carries some calligraphy in the upper right quadrant of the print that he applied by hand, after drawing the prints.

Haku Maki did some purely white prints—some had a small splash of color, others had none. This one, 81-3, offers three white plump persimmons. Persimmons were an oft-used subject, sometimes a single depiction of the fruit, sometimes two, but very rarely three persimmons and even more rarely done only in white. The print measures 9.5in W x 10.75in H and is in excellent condition. An edition of 130, this one is number 90.

Figure 1 is one of a large group of prints that were themselves usually large in size and in subject—one Chinese character in red on a black background. Daniel Tretiak called these prints Big Reds. Maki tended to insert one or more of such prints in the Figure, Poem and Work series. This Figure is number 8 of an edition of 50. It measures 14in wide X 21.75in high. There is tape residue on all four sides of the back—it has no impact on the front. Like virtually all of his Big Reds, this Maki print is striking, attention-getting in any room.

This print Z-446B was one of a small number of creations that he put on hard, gold-edged board. Daniel Tretiak wrote that these prints “were printed first on very thin paper, which was then ‘wrapped’ around heavy shikishi board. They are lithographs not done from wood blocks. Done in 1999, this work measures 7.25in x 8.25in, is in excellent condition, and one of an edition of 77.

This silkscreen offering is said by some to depict Kabuki make-up. It is 8sq inches and in excellent condition. See picture 4, the title, where Maki seems to have written Kuma 92/--his numeral 1 was usually a straightforward vertical 1.

Poem 70-10 is the kanji for day 日. It is a striking, simply executed print. Created in 1970, it is now over a half-century old. The print is 17.5in W x 24.5in H, large (but not huge). As Daniel Tretiak has said: In 1970 quite suddenly Haku Maki started producing truly large prints. He tells us that this one was large but Maki was destined to do even larger ones, that year and in 1973.

J-10 is an exciting example not only of Haku Maki’s depiction of Chinese characters but also his use of a hard gold-edged board (instead of simple single or multiple sheets of paper). In the last year of Maki’s life, Daniel Tretiak tells us, he was ill but continued to work. He did lithographs on shikishi board, which was a hard board covered in white rice paper. The back was yellow with a small design in gold and the whole board is gold-edged. These words apply to J-10 as well. J-10 measures 7.25in W x 8.25in H. It is in excellent condition.