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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Kurt Jobst, Goldsmith and Silversmith


It all started with a question on a web forum: someone had acquired a bangle crafted by Kurt Jobst and wanted to know some basic information about the artist.

It was the first time I heard that name: the person who had put the question knew only that Kurt Jobst had lived in South Africa and wanted firstly to find out whether he was still alive. It seemed that there was a book about his art, but nobody knew where to find it: no info about the title or the author.

I decided to try a search on the web, by mere curiosity, with no idea on the outcome.

The first information I found was that Kurt Jobst had passed away in 1971.

It was a catalog edited by the Lilly Library (the rare books, manuscripts, and special collections library of the Indiana University). The catalog referenced all papers kept by the library that were related to Nadine Gordimer, the South African author, Nobel Prize laureate: early writings, articles, book reviews, novels, scripts, short stories, short story collections, speeches, as well as simple annotations. All organized in boxes and folders.

Well, in box 10/folder 8 there was an annotation on Kurt Jobst:

Kurt Jobst [address]. Given by Reinhold Cassirer at the cremation of Kurt Jobst, May 7, 1971. Final version of address; photocopy of clipping, titled: He gave Jo'burg Some Style, A Personal Tribute by Nadine Gordimer; photocopy of longer version used as foreword for book on Jobst's work, published 1977.

Looking for the traces of a person whom I was wandering whether still alive, it was kind of shocking to find the first information telling me about his cremation in 1971! At least with a fine word about him, he gave Jo'sburg some style.

A sentence telling me not only about Kurt Jobst, but also about Nadine Gordimer! It was actually the first sentence coined by her that I was coming upon: an elegant and generous sentence telling in two words a lot about the man (who had given a whole city some style), proving in the same time a subtle empathy for the burg she was living in; that Jo'burg was such a great way to say a lot about Johannesburg!

But: was that Kurt Jobst the personage I was looking for? To find the answer I had to look for that book printed in 1979, with the foreword by Nadine Gordimer.

I found the book on the web: another catalog, this time the one of Clarke's Bookshop:

23. [Jobst (Kurt)] KURT JOBST, goldsmith and silversmith, art metal
worker, 47pp., 4to., b/w & colour illus., hardback, d.w.,
Johannesburg, 1979. R750
Includes An appreciation of Kurt Jobst by Nadine Gordimer.

Now I was sure that it was the same person! Only this finding grew my appetite to find more about Kurt Jobst. So far I knew only some very basic facts: a jeweler who had lived in Johannesburg, died in 1971, a book about him printed in 1979; Nadine Gordimer knew him and wrote an introduction to the book.

Looking at the bookshop web address, I was initially confused: the termination was .ZA, I hadn't known that this was the abbreviation for South Africa (from Dutch: Zuid Afrika).

Clarke's Bookshop was located in Cape Town, and the price of the book was kind of astronomical, not to mention shipping costs, so there was no question to order it from there. I looked for the book on the Amazon: it was out of stock, with a not too encouraging note (currently unavailable; we don't know when or if this item will be back in stock).

So I went on by searching with the Google engine for books. What I found was fascinating: the whole life of Kurt Jobst was unfurling in front of my eyes (to be right, only in general aspects, but anyway).

Kurt Jobst was originary from Austria. He was born in 1905 and learned the gold and silver craft in his native country. Two books were mentioning his Austrian background:

  1. The Grove Dictionary of Art (Jane Turner editor), at page 120: foremost among them was Kurt Jobst (1905-71), who had served his apprenticeship under Karl Berthold, a master goldsmith, in the town of Hanau-am-Main, where he also attended the Goldsmith Academy...
  2. The Fleuron. A Journal of Typography (Stanley Morison, Olivier Simon editors), at page 33: two pupils of his calligraphy class, Kurt Jobst and Berthold Wolpe, have already proved to be collaborators of great ability. In the course of the last year a number of articles worked in metal were produced, some of which I should like to mention. A receptacle for the Sacred Host made of lead, ornamented by an...
Another book was briefly mentioning him as an Austrian jeweler educated under the influence of the Bauhaus School.

He quit Austria after the Anschluss. Here our now well known acquaintance Nadine Gordimer comes to our help: Conversations with Nadine Gordimer (by Nadine Gordimer, Nancy Topping Bazin, Marilyn Dallman Seymour), at page 251; here you go: there was Kurt Jobst, a jeweller, who wasn't a Jew or a leftist but had quit Austria because of the Nazis; and it goes on: he hadn't ever had any black friends. He was a middle-aged man and let part of his house to an English friend...

And finally we come again on the book about him, printed in 1979: Kurt Jobst. Goldsmith and Silversmith. Art Metal Worker (Dieter and Arno Jobst authors), with the introduction by Nadine Gordimer.

How was his life in South Africa? He did not have black friends, he had at least an English friend, he was known and appreciated by Nadine Gordimer, presumably by other members of the intelectual and artistic elite there. Was he involved in the political tumult there? Was he rather a shy person, living exclusivley in his golden and silver universe? I do not know the answer.

But what I know about him says to me a lot: he gave Jo'burg some style.



(Avangarda 20)

(Nadine Gordimer)

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15 Comments:

  • I own a gold bangle created as a gift for me with Kurt Jobst's signature on it. He was my pen friend when I lived in Jerusalem in the late sixites, early 1970.

    I remember receiving a letter from his lawyers advising me of his death in a car accident.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:23 AM  

  • Thank you for this information: it is very precious - everything I have known so far was by inferences built on web search.

    If you'd like to tell me more about Kurt Jobst would be of great help. You could send me a eMail and I would post it on the blog on your behalf.

    Thanks again,

    Pierre
    p_radulescu@yahoo.com

    By Blogger Pierre Radulescu, at 9:22 AM  

  • I own a pure gold bangle which was made especially for me in 1970. It has his signature on it. Kurt Jobst was my pen-friend in the late sixties until his death in 1971.

    Irene

    By Blogger Irene, at 4:34 PM  

  • Hello - my name is Marius Dakin, the grandson of Kurt Jobst. I am the son of Catherine Dakin (formerly Jobst)- one of four children sired by my grandfather and grandmother Lotte. My uncles Dieter and Arno live in the southern suburbs of London, while their sister Angelica lives in Nice, southern France. I live in Australia with my wife Rose and grandson Zebediah and operate two bead/jewellery shops in Western Australia. Naturally, I am very fortunate to have in my possession many of my grandfathers creations -from jewellery to wrought iron work. I also have a limited edition (#4) of his biography.

    By Blogger Marius Dakin, at 1:24 AM  

  • Thank you for visiting my blog.

    Your information is of great value to me: I knew about Dieter and Arno, I also found information about one sister; I had not known what happened to them. It happened that I found out much more information about Tarquin, the smallest son of Kurt Jobst. He is now living in Brussels, where he is leading an important symphonic hall, organizing pan-European music festivals.

    Thank you again, and I wish you and your family a Happy New Year 2010.

    Pierre Radulescu

    By Blogger Pierre Radulescu, at 6:14 AM  

  • I have a friend Anne Liese who was friends with Angelica Jobst in South Africa. Does anyone know of Angelica's whereabouts and an address for Anne to write to her?
    Thank you

    By Blogger anne jellinek, at 2:24 PM  

  • Thank you, Anne, for your comment. I don't have the information you asked for, but I think one of the persons who sent their comments here should have it. Anyway, if I get such an information I will be more than glad to send it to you.

    By Blogger Pierre Radulescu, at 3:47 PM  

  • I own a thick heavy silver bangle, made by Kurt Jobst that i bought from a Jewelry store in johannesburg when i was 17... for some reason I recall it being a kind of pawn shop... i remember putting it away on 'lay away' that was in 1970... I still own it and cherish it, it now lives with me in California .

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:13 PM  

  • Thanks for your lines. Kurt Jobst still lives through his art works and through the people who met him, and one can find memories of him in Australia and California, Arizona and Belgium, Germany and England, Israel and Alaska.

    And your lines are touching me: a silver bangle that was, in a way, the companion of your life, from South Africa to California.

    Thank you again!

    By Blogger Pierre Radulescu, at 8:56 AM  

  • I'm reluctantly selling my Kurt Jobst silver bangle on eBay at the moment if any collectors are interested.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:20 AM  

  • I have an aquamarine ring set in oxidized silver made by Kurt Jobst purchased in Johannesburg during the 1960's that I would like to sell.
    loriantoo@juno.com

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:08 PM  

  • I have a beautiful plain gold wedding ring which Kurt Jobst made when I got married before I left South Africa in 1961. I used to wear his copper drop earrings and also had a copper bangle. I wish I could buy some of these beautiful objects now. I often visited his shop.

    I was very upset when I heard that he died in a car accident I often think of him and his beautiful creations.

    Carol Kohll
    London

    By Anonymous Carol Kohll, at 7:30 PM  

  • I am in possession of Kurt Jobst bangle in 18ct gold Weight 76 grams. (2.6 ounces) It is on auction on Bid or Buy if someone might be intersted>

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:18 AM  

  • I have a beautiful one carat Kurt Jobst diamond ring to sell. the diamond is set in an ebony wood square and on a gold band.
    Any interests.?? Carolb@fts.org.za

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:37 AM  

  • I have a cultured pearl necklace with a 14kt gold clasp with a sapphire in the centre made byyour grandfather. It was given to my wife's grandmother in the 1950s by her late husband

    By Blogger Colin j, at 2:41 PM  

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