Large 'Eel' Covered Dish, Model No. 1054, designed 1956, executed 2002

Designed in 1956, the 'Eel' Covered Dish by Henning Koppel captures Koppel’s sculptural approach into a single continuous form. The elongated body and its fitted lid create a silhouette that appears almost fluid, with the surface carrying light in a restrained and even manner. Conceived as a serving vessel yet approaching abstraction, the dish reflects Koppel’s conviction that utility should emerge naturally from beauty rather than define it.

Trained as a sculptor at the Royal Danish Academy and later in Paris, Koppel brought an unusually plastic sensibility to his work for Georg Jensen after joining the firm in 1946. His designs softened the rigor of postwar functionalism with organic forms drawn from nature and the body, helping to define the international language of Danish modernism.

The 'Eel' Covered Dish remains among the rarest and most technically demanding works in Georg Jensen’s silver production. Raised entirely by hand from flat sheets of sterling silver, each example requires more than five hundred hours of labor and can only be executed by a handful of master silversmiths. The precision with which the lid meets the body seamlessly across its full length is central to the piece’s achievement, and accounts for its status as one of Koppel’s most exceptional hollowware designs