Spoon, silver-gilt and plique-à-jour enamel, Norway, Kristiania (Oslo), c.1880- 1893, made by J. Tostrup.

Spoon, silver-gilt, the pointed bowl decorated in the plique-à-jour technique with a floral spray: the knop is set with leaves and flowers in the same technique.

Purchased from J. Tostrup, Carl Johans Gade, 25, Kristiania, from a large consignment (69 objects in all) of `transperant enamel work' forwarded on approval by this firm. The consignment was received on the 20th December. Only thirteen pieces, all spoons except for two hat pins, were purchased, some for distribution to provincial museums.

Three spoons (1265-1893, 1266-1893 and 1273-1893) were all bought as by J. Tostrup (1806-90) of Kristiania, who imported modern mechanized methods of manufacture and a new, more fashionable sense of design into Norwegian silver (see A. Polak, pp.90-91, 165). Enamel decoration was popularized throughout Europe by the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 and the Budapest Exhibition of 1884. Olaf Tostrup visited both these exhibitions and was inspired by them to work in enamel. Plique-à-jour enamel had been reintroduced into goldsmiths' work by Ferdinand Thesmar (1843-1912) of Paris, and for two decades the technique was used in Norway for a number of works in a sophisticated style. The Tostrup firm and another Norwegian goldsmith, David Andersen, sent works executed in it to the Paris exhibition of 1900. According to Dr A. Polak (op.cit., pp.110-11). Tostrup's began working in plique-à-jour ca.1890.

Jacob Ulrik Holfeldt Tostrup (born 1806 in Hjelmeland, died 1890) was a Norwegian goldsmith and jeweler, and was educated in Bergen, St. Petersburg and Copenhagen. He founded the jewelers firm 'J. Tostrup' in 1832 in Oslo. The firm made the original enameled insignia for the Order of St. Olav, when the order was established in 1848 and later in 1883 it was put in charge of the whole production. 'J. Tostrup' received the title royal court jeweler, and Jacob Tostrup received the 'King’s Medal of Merit' for his work as a goldsmith. Tostrup took on his granddaughter's husband Torolf Prytz as a partner in 1884 and he became owner of the firm J. Tostrup after Jacob Tostrup's death.

1273-1893