Sandrik

Products from this producer offered by Prague Art & Design

Sandrik

The company, established by Ján Sandrik in the small Slovak city of Dolní Hamry in 1895, focused on producing small series of silver art objects. The increasing financial problems, however, forced the firm to shift its orientation to the cheaper nickel silver and to launch the production of dishware and drinking glass series. This significant change occurred under the management of Jan Peterka in 1903 and it soon turned Sandrik to a successful competitor of the Austrian Bendorfer, especially on Czech and Polish markets. The artistically most successful period for Sandrik was the inter-war period when the company received a boost from its firearms production during the First World War. At that time, many designs of the leading representatives of Czech avant-garde were realized – for example architects Rudolf Stockar, Bohumír Južnič and Ladislav Sutnar.

Apart from nickel silver and its combinations with glass, the company also succeeded in producing chromium-plated steel after the example of Wiener Werkstätte and Artěl, turning them into a symbol of the modern era. This is also how they were presented at the 1923 international exhibition in the Italian Monza and in Brno in 1928. Between 1953 and 1956, the company was nationalized and its goldsmith’s and silversmith’s workshops were transferred under the national firm Kovotep. The main production program of the company between the 1960s and 1990s was based on chrome steel.