Leo Askhim vintage costume jewelry

Leo Askhim vintage costume jewelry

Stylish vintage jewelry made by the skilled Danish silversmith Leo Askhim is a gift from nature itself. Real flowers, plants, flower buds were first covered with silver, then with a layer of gold. The frozen, bewitching, undying beauty of nature in the Master’s jewelry.
The history of Danish “Leo Askim” jewelry brand began from a silver plating factory in Malling. Its founders and owners were a businessman and self-taught inventor Leo and his wife Inger (1930-2017). A trained goldsmith, Inger had a great talent for both drawing and modeling. She met Leo in 1952 and graduated in 1954. In 1953, Leo and Inger opened a workshop in Frederiksgade Aarhus and started silvering coffee pots and cutlery. The couple got married on 21 August 1954. The next year, Leo begins experimenting with silver-plating children’s boots and succeeds. The work was truly innovative, and the workshop was the only one in Denmark that could do the work. Although the use of electrolysis for silvering is an old technique, the trick lied in getting the silver to stick to all sorts of materials.
Soon the workshop in Aarhus became far too small. Askhim bought a large plot of land on Bredgade in Malling (1959), and built a workshop and villa in 1960. The buildings designed by his neighbor, architect Børge Christensen, expanded to two floors in 1961 and to three floors in 1964.

Leo began getting orders not only from Denmark, but from all over the Nordic region and even from abroad. In 1963, the big “must have” in Hollywood was gilded phones with 24 carat gold made in Malling.
Since 1966 the range of products expanded to manufacturing silver jewelry, in addition to silver plating children’s boots, pacifiers, dishes, coffee pots, candlesticks, and many more. For example, one of their works was a bouquet of silver-plated daisies presented to 50th birthday of Queen Margrethe made in Malling.

Leo Askhim vintage costume jewelry

Leo himself said it was the real challenge to silver an accordion – he succeeded, but he did not do it again.
In the early 1990s the production resumed, but still functioned. The factory closed On 31 December 1999. At that time, both Leo and Inger were 70 years old.

Noteworthy, Leo and his wife Inger have been happily married for more than sixty years. Aged 86, goldsmith Inger Askhim died in 2017. She left behind her husband, their three daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.