About søe-jensen & Co.
“Beauty lies in the detail, and we cherish it,” Quote: Christian Westergaard, who today owns Søe-Jensen & Co.
Søe-Jensen & Co. has existed since 1862 and has for more than 150 years primarily produced brass door handles and fittings for many larger buildings around Denmark. Read more about Søe-Jensen below.
Our history with Søe-Jensen & Co, has roots dating back to 1924.
In 1924, business manager Elo Birkvang was hired, and it was he who later trained my father, Henrik Westergaard, when he was hired in 1963. At that time I am 1 year old.
Birkvang stays in the company until 1965, when he retires.
My father ends up buying Søe-Jensen and Co. in 1985, where he looks after the business until his retirement in 2019.
My journey starts in the early 90’s where I go to Poland to build and manage the production according to the old craft principles.
It is still the production that forms the framework for all the products Søe-Jensen and Co. sells today.
I will take over Søe-Jensen after my father in 2019, and have since then been undergoing an extensive renovation so the business is both state-of-the-art, but where it preserves the proud craftsmanship, with the very special craftsmanship and design.
Our brass door handle has been open since 1862
The year is 1862, the place is Copenhagen. The ramparts have lost their military significance and have just been abolished, for the city is growing, the bridge quarters are shooting up, and transport is taking place for most people on foot, perhaps occasionally with one of the modern horse-drawn trams. A very different Copenhagen than what we know today, but one thing has not changed: you can still find a store under the name Søe-Jensen & Co., and the store sells then as now its self-produced, sand-cast door handles in brass.
The company’s full name at the time was “Copenhagen Door Handle and Metalware Factory. Hansen and Søe-Jensen ”. It was a business of a nice size, a definite factory with a unique and solid product range, in contrast to the smaller grocers.
Part of the cultural history and on many trips
Already in the previous years around the turn of the century, Søe-Jensen & Co. as also a supplier to many of the large buildings that characterized the expanding Copenhagen: When the New Theater was to be built in 1907, they chose the classic brass door handle “Brown”.
A smaller, but culturally historically important task was when Søe-Jensen & Co. at the request of Knud Rasmussen in 1917, brass designed door handles and door hammers in the form of a characteristic walrus for use in the polar researcher’s new home at Hundested. Since the house was built, the front door has been replaced twice, while the door handle and door hammer in brass have been recycled and just appear even nicer and patinated, which is a tangible proof of the incredible durability that characterizes all Søe-Jensen & Co.’s products. . You can read the whole story about Knud Rasmussen’s front door here and you can of course also buy your very own brass door handle right here .
The products from Søe-Jensen & Co. has also found application among others than the cultural elite: For many years it was our toilet lock with the messages “busy” or “free” that met the needy travelers with DSB, which at the time went by the name Statsbanerne.
Addresses and zealots
Over the years, Søe-Jensen & Co. held at various addresses in Copenhagen, just as there have been various zealots behind the company.
The same year that the walrus door handle saw the light of day, in 1917, “Hansen” chose to withdraw from the company, which thereby changed its name to the current Søe-Jensen & Co.
The factory facilities have been located in several places, including on Amager and later on Godthåbsvej in Frederiksberg.
In the 1920s, the factory and shop were separated, as Søe-Jensen & Co. opened own store. First in Skindergade 39 in the center, in the 1960s on Gråbrødretorv 8, the last 20 years in Kompagnistræde and from 2020 we are on Amaliegade 4.
