ArtistDanish
Evald Nielsen
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The shop at Nygade 5 in central Copenhagen, rebuilt in the art deco style in 1931, drew considerable attention when it opened. Inside, customers could find cutlery sets in sterling silver with handles shaped like opening blossoms, brooches set with amber and moonstone, and hollowware whose hammered surfaces caught light in a way that machine-finished silver never could. The man behind all of it, Evald Nielsen, had spent nearly three decades building the technical and commercial reputation that made the renovation possible.
Nielsen was born on 5 June 1879 in Stubbekobing, a small town on the island of Falster in southern Denmark. His father, a coach builder, was injured in a work accident in 1887 and eventually died in 1893, leaving the family in difficult circumstances. That same year, at fourteen, Evald Nielsen was apprenticed to the Copenhagen workshop of Aug. Fleron, starting as a press operator before moving to steel engraving. He completed his training in 1900 and immediately set off to broaden his knowledge, working in Germany, Switzerland, and France and attending the World Exhibition in Paris.
In 1905 he opened his own small shop and workshop in a cellar on Raadhusstrade in Copenhagen, working at first as both silversmith and engraver. Over the following years he focused increasingly on silver production - hollow ware, jewelry, and above all cutlery. By 1914 the workshop employed fourteen people. In 1918 the business moved to Vester Voldgade 11, and in 1926 Nielsen purchased property on Nygade 5 in the heart of Copenhagen's main shopping district.
Nielsen's aesthetic was rooted in the Danish skønvirke movement, the local interpretation of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts that sought to unify fine design with skilled handwork. Unlike his contemporary Georg Jensen, who collaborated extensively with external artists and architects, Nielsen designed everything himself, or with minimal outside input. The result was a singular house style: cutlery patterns such as No. 3 and No. 6, with floral and berry motifs in heavy sterling, hammered centerpieces with open-worked stems, candlesticks, jewelry set with amber, moonstone, and hematite. Throughout his whole career he held to the conviction that the trained craftsman was the only one qualified to design and make in equal measure.
Beyond the workshop, Nielsen invested heavily in the organisation of his trade. In 1913 he joined the Goldsmith's Guild of Copenhagen and by 1918 had been elected its master, a position he held for thirty years. In 1920 he helped found Dansk Guldsmedemesterforening, the Union of Danish Goldsmithmasters, serving as its first chairman. He also helped establish the first vocational courses for gold- and silversmiths at the Danish Technological Institute in 1918. On his retirement from the guild mastership in 1948 he was made honorary master. His son Aage Weimar Nielsen (1902-1986) worked in the firm from 1927 before eventually opening his own workshop.
Evald Nielsen died in Copenhagen on 12 May 1958. Silver from his workshop is identified by the hallmark "EN" or the full name "Evald Nielsen," often accompanied by date letters, pattern numbers, and silver fineness marks.
On the Nordic auction market his pieces appear primarily at Bruun Rasmussen in Denmark, which accounts for the majority of recorded lots, alongside Swedish houses such as Halmstads Auktionskammare and Bukowskis. His range at auction spans cutlery services (most notably the No. 3 and No. 6 patterns), centerpieces, candlesticks, brooches, and cufflinks. The highest recorded sale at auction on Auctionist reached 38,000 DKK for a combined No. 3 and No. 6 cutlery service of 78 pieces, while a large hammered silver centerpiece achieved 25,000 DKK.