Gustav Klingert is a Russian jeweler of German origin, the owner of an enterprise for the manufacture of silver and gold items, which worked in Moscow at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. The factory of Gustav Klingert existed for a little over fifty years and left a noticeable mark in the history of silversmithing.

The History of the Gustav Klingert Factory

Gustav Klingert comes from a family of hereditary jewelers who moved to Moscow from Germany at the beginning of the 19th century. As a young man he worked in his father’s workshop and founded his business in 1865 in the wake of the high demand for silver that was then observed in Russia. At first, the production facilities were located in the family house in Maly Syromyatnichesky Lane, and in the 1910s the company moved to Yelokhovskaya Square.

Gustav Klingert was guided by the fashionable neo-Russian style. In 1897, the company’s output was 45 thousand rubles with a staff of 55 people.

Since the late 1880s, the factory has regularly participated in international exhibitions. In 1889, Klingert’s silver won a bronze medal in Paris, and in 1893 it took third place at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The company received part of the orders from the Moscow division of Carl Faberge’s firm. In 1909, the main profile of the factory was the production of tableware, and more than 1.3 tons of silver were processed annually in the workshops.

The last mentions of Gustav Klingert in archival documents are related to his membership in the Moscow Numismatic Society, where he was until 1915. By this time, the entrepreneur was already 76 years old, and his eldest son Karl-Gustav-Otto managed the business. Like many others, the company ceased to exist due to revolutionary events. In Soviet times, Klingert Jr. worked at the Moscow Jewelry Association.

Silver by Gustav Klingert – Styles and Techniques

In Klingert’s workshops, many inexpensive silver items were made with a minimum of decor: cigarette cases, snuff boxes, coasters, cutlery. Engraving and niello were applied to the surface, the handles of knives, forks and spoons were decorated with floral ornaments. There were products made in a combined technique – crystal vases framed with silver and glass decanters, handbags with glass cabochons. However, enamel products brought real glory to the factory.

Master enamellers made dishes typical of pre-Petrine Russia forms: cups, brothers, ladles and shtofs. The enamel palette of jewelers in those days consisted of almost one and a half hundred shades, which made it possible for artists to show imagination in choosing colors.

Characteristic features of silver with enamel factory Gustav Klingert:

• The shape of the objects is simple, without pretentious elements.
• Decor from combinations of no more than three colors, most often blue, white and red shades.
• The drawing is divided into separate zones in case of choosing contrasting tones.
• The ornament is small, large details are rare and usually stand out in color.

The real find of Klingert was the azure and turquoise shades of enamel, which are found in the decoration of entire sets of dishes. In these works, a strong influence of Art Nouveau is felt. The ornament does not look monotonous due to bright colors, gilding and a decorative border imitating pearls.

Enamelers worked closely with chasers and carvers. One of the characteristic techniques of the factory is a pattern in the form of a kind of honeycomb, made in the technique of champlevé enamel. Products look elegant due to fine workmanship and carefully selected colors.

The factory used the technique of “window” enamelling, popular at the turn of the century, which was not widely used due to the laboriousness of the work and the fragility of the partitions. With the help of this technique, the craftsmen made magnificent decorative ladles in the neo-Russian style, which let in light like a stained-glass window.

Hallmarks of Gustav Klingert

Prior to the entry into force of the assay charter of 1896, finished products were marked with the coat of arms of the city of Moscow and the name of the master (GK or GK) in a rectangular shield. Sometimes stamps were used with the owner’s surname in Russian or German – Klingart or Klingert. Additionally, the assayer put a stamp with a sample and his own stamp with the initials and year of verification.

After 1899, when the new branding rules began to operate throughout Russia, objects began to be marked with a stamp depicting a female profile in a kokoshnik, indicating the sample and the name of the manufacturer.