The Danish silver company Georg Jensen was founded in 1904 and by the 1920s it had shops all over the world. The son of a blacksmith and born in 1866, Georg Jensen grew up in a poor family in the little industrial town of Raavad north of Copenhagen. When he was 14, his family moved to Copenhagen where he apprenticed with a goldsmith. In his spare time, he took drawing, geometry, engraving, and modeling courses during which time he decided to become a sculptor. After graduating in 1892, he first made art pottery than he decided he would return to his old craft of metalsmithing to support his family making silver jewelry to his own designs. Finally, in 1904, he opened his own shop in Copenhagen and soon had 60 people working for him. His designs were a success, but his business acumen was not as he constantly needed to rely on new investors. In 1925, he left the company and moved to Paris to start a new workshop, but this venture was unsuccessful and he returned to Copenhagen. There, he rejoined the company as the artistic director where he continued to design for the company bearing his name until his death.
The Georg Jensen name has always carried the mantle of the highest quality silver, made using the most expensive techniques of production. At one time, Jensen made 33 flatware patterns, 23 of which are no longer produced, and about 1200 holloware items such as bowls, candelabra, pitchers, tea sets, trays, vases, wine coolers, and covered fish platters. Like Georg Jensen jewelry, many holloware pieces were embellished with semiprecious stones like amber, amethyst, garnet, lapis lazuli, malachite, opal, and quartz. Over the years before his death in 1935, Jensen hired a series of talented designers who were allowed to go their own ways.
Some of the firm's more notable designers include: Johan Rohde (1856-1935) Just Andersen (1884-1943) Gundolph Albertus (1887-1970) Harald Nielsen (1892-1977) Arno Malinowski (1899-1976) Count Sigvard Bernadotte (1907-2002) Henning Koppel (1918-1981) Bent Gabrielsen (1918-) Nanna Ditzel (1923-2005) Vivianna Torun Bulow-Hube (1927-2004).
As such, Jensen's greatest talent may have been his ability to find and nurture other talents. One of the most talented, original, and influential silversmiths of the 20th century, Georg Jensen silver designs live on today as one of the most highly sought examples of the art of fine silver.

Founded in 1929, Chow Tai Fook is a jewellery retailer, wholesaler and manufacturer. Throughout the past 75 years, it has earned a reputation for integrity...

Hoping to enhance understanding of pearls by making them more accessible, Kokichi founded the world's first store specializing pearl jewelry in Tokyo's Ginza district. In 1906, he moved the store to a new building in Ginza 4-chome. The Mikimoto Pearl Store, a two-story Western-style building made of white stone, was a remarkably new type of establishment, offering Kokichi's keen sense of contemporary fashion in the form of beautiful, high-quality items.

Stylish young men in finely tailored high-collared three-piece suits waited on the customers and each month the store featured new displays conceived by expert designers. Kokichi put the utmost effort into decorating the showcases with jewelry representing the highest quality and most refined styles. The Mikimoto Pearl Store, a product of Kokichi's study of Western aesthetics and his own unique sense of style, soon attracted worldwide attention. Kokichi steadily continued pursuing his dreams.

For nearly 150 years, Boucheron has been designing precious gems, jewelry, watches, and perfumes. Steadfast in its commitment to timeless craftsmanship, Boucheron is always in step with the movements of art and fashion.

Since it was founded in 1858, Boucheron has been a pioneer among jewelers: the wrist to engrave diamonds, an innovator of the nature inspired motifs – snake, butterfly or dragonfly – that defined Art Nouvean style, the first to create the wristwatch.

In 1893, Boucheron became the first jeweler to move to the place Vendome at number 26, once the residence of the Comtesse de Castiglione, a famous deductive beauty of the Second Empire.

As fashion and lifestyle evolved through the decades – Cubism, the Russian Ballet, Art Deco, African Art, Pop Art – Boucheron continued to reflect the times.

In the 1920’s, Boucheron brought out dangling earrings inlaid with precious stones and created “White Jewelry” (diamonds set in platinum). They also created many designs for the Maharajah of Patiala and, faithful to their royal clientele, designed crowns and jewels for queens and princesses.

In the late 1940’s and 50’s, Boucheron inspired, with great success, a revival of flower and feather motifs to accompany the “New Look”.

With the passing years, Boucheron designed jewelry and watches for the modern women, to be worn throughout the day and into the evening. He created accessible jewelry, new watch models and launched his perfumes all over the world.

Today nurtured by the Boucheron creative heritage and know-how, a new creative direction is forgiving the next chapter in its enduring legacy. New boutiques are now opening in the main capitals of the world, witness to the new era.

The Prince of Wales hailed Cartier as "Joaillier des Rois, Roi des Joailliers" (Jeweller to Kings, King of Jewellers"). Cartier received an order for 27 tiaras for the coronation of the future King. King Edward V11 was crowned in 1902  and in 1904 he honoured the Company with the royal warrant of supplier to the Royal Court of England. Similar warrants soon followed from the courts of Spain, Portugal, Russia, Siam, Greece, Serbia, Belgium, Romania, Egypt and finally Albania, and also from the House of Orleans and the Principality of Monaco.