Theodor Fahrner. Jewellery between Avant-Garde and Tradition

In the two great period styles Jugendstil/Art Nouveau and Art Déco, Theodor Fahrner in Pforzheim/Germany was one of Europe's most innovative and creative jewellery-makers. A pioneering German industrialist, Theodor Fahrner joined the late 19th-century aesthetic reform movement famous as Jugendstil, commissioning artists to execute designs for modern jewellery, including Franz Boeres, Rudolf Bossel, Max Gradl, Ludwig Habich, Patriz Huber, Georg Kleemann, Erich Kleinhempel and Joseph Maria Olbrich. In the first decade of the 20th century, he led the field with his 'designer jewellery'.

After Fahrner's death in 1919, Gustav Braendle took over the firm and continued to manage it under the registered trade mark 'FAHRNER-SCHMUCK'. The 1920s and 1930s brought forth extravagant jewellery in the international Art Déco style. Designers such as the Viennese painter Anton Kling now shaped the geometric look of 'Fahrner art jewellery' with their creations.