Stepping into the shop in Zieglergasse 24 is like passing through a wormhole and ending up in a different time. We end up in the outmoded showroom of the well-established silversmith Jarosinski & Vaugoin. Sixth-generation heir Jean-Paul Vaugoin is of distinguished appearance as he receives us with perfect manners. He proudly retrieves an exuberantly decorated set of silverware from the baroque period from his display cabinet, jokes about a chicken thigh-holder and tells us the story about why Benvenuto Cellini’s golden Saliera here is made of silver.
A workshop for kings
From the backyard workshop to the royal courts of the world
Jean-Paul Vaugoin also takes us through the workshop in the backyard of the Biedermeier house. Everything here looks like it would have looked 100 years ago. Together with his colleagues, silversmith master Yakup Kurer manufactures exclusive silverware for kings, sheiks, and the like. The silversmiths are sitting at their well-worn wooden work benches. They are hammering, filing, sanding, and polishing the silver, all by hand. The smell of metal and polishing paste is in the air. Chemical fluids for galvanisation are simmering in large tubs.
Many work steps later, some of the silverware even finds its way to the most remote royal courts of Arabia and Malaysia. But you will also find very modern designs here.
And sometimes even the boss rolls up his sleeves and personally hammers out the silver.
Jarosinski & Vaugoin – The silversmiths
