Wilhelmina Wendt (8 August 1896 – 26 June 1988), commonly known as Tiddit, was a Swedish

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

. She was the first woman in Sweden to be granted the title of "master silversmith". From the late 1920s, she designed trays, serving dishes, bowls, jugs and jewellery. In the mid 1940s, she settled in

Perstorp Perstorp is a urban areas of Sweden, locality and the seat of Perstorp Municipality in Skåne County, Sweden with 6,054 inhabitants (2018). It is twinned with Newton Aycliffe, a town in the North-East of England. History 19th Century Moder ...

where she combined her father's black insulation material "isolit" with her own thin silver designs, producing artefacts in what she called "silverisolit".

Biography

Born in

on 8 August 1896, Wilhelmina Wendt was the daughter of the engineer and factory owner Wilhelm Wendt and his wife Minna née Pauly. She was the fifth child in a family of 12. Disliking her given name, she called herself Tiddit or Tittit. Like her siblings, she attended schools in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , , ) is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and ninth-largest in Sweden, with a population of 113,816 (2020). Helsingborg is the cent ...

and

Kristianstad Kristianstad (, ; older spelling from Danish language, Danish ''Christianstad'') is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 40,145 inhabitants in 2016. During the last 15 years, it has ...

. After being inspired by the designer Per Torndahl who had installed lighting in her father's factory, she moved to Stockholm where she attended the College of Arts, Crafts and Design. On graduating as an artisan, Wendt created engraved silver-plated trays, casks, tableware, coasters, jugs and jewellery, decorated with animals, plants, ships and mythological beings. She signed herself TW. The Stockholm handicrafts association awarded her a silver medal for her creations. She contributed her works to the 1929 Paris exhibition and, for the 1930 Stockholm exhibition. presented a pewter

candelabra A candelabra (plural candelabras) or candelabrum (plural candelabra or candelabrums) is a candle holder with multiple arms. Although electricity has relegated candleholders to decorative use, interior designers continue to model light fixtures ...

decorated with buildings from Stockholm. Despite a study trip to Germany in 1941, which she took with a friend on her motorbike and its sidecar, as a woman she had difficulty in finding employment. As a result, she opened her own studio in Malmö under the name Silversmedjan T. Wendt. She also had a workshop in Helsingborg. In 1946, she moved back to her native Perstorp where she opened a workshop in a former glass factory with several employees. She is remembered above all for creating works combining her silversmith designs with the black plastic-like insulating material manufactured by her father. She called the combination "silverisolit". Wilhelmina Wendt died in Perstorp on 26 June 1988. Several of her works are in the permanent collection of

Nationalmuseet The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

Biography

References

Further reading