In the 1950s and '60s Scandinavian design, with its simplicity of form and natural materials, was influential all over the world and in many media, from textiles to furniture. Jwellery was designed around organic shapes, often merging to become miniature sculptural elements. Finely crafted silver was the preferred material, often in combination with inexpensive gemstones in unconventional cuts and asymmetrical compositions.

Bertel Gardberg, silversmith and designer, was trained in Finland and Denmark. By the fifties he was part of the avant-garde movement in jewellery. Most characteristic of his work are the unconventional stone cuts and their settings he designed. The sheer simplicity of the forms was his trademark.