Our history

In 1872, goldsmith Knut Andreas Rasmussen founded K.A. Rasmussen. This was the beginning of a journey resulting in today’s international company and what was to become the Nordic’s largest supplier of precious metals.

K.A. Rasmussen was based in Oslo and the company specialised in the production of filigree work. Knut Andreas conducted large-scale production and export and found a good market in England. In addition to production, the company had a regular goldsmith business.

In 1901, his son Edvard Julius Rasmussen took over the business.  He ran a workshop, a store, and the production facilities. He also actively participated in professional committees and in 1927, shortly before he died at the age of 60, was awarded the Goldsmiths’ Association’s badge of honour.

It was his wife Mrs. Hilda Rasmussen who after his death took over the business together with the family’s eldest son Torleiv Rasmussen. Hilda Rasmussen had with great interest participated in the Goldsmiths’ Guild’s work, including as chair of the Goldsmiths’ Guilds’ women’s committee.

It was under Torleiv’s leadership for 50 years that the company’s workshop and production facilities developed into the Nordic’s leading producer and supplier of precious metals to gold and silverware manufacturers. The company’s technical and commercial development and expansion is primarily due to his skills, insight and willingness to invest.

Torleiv Rasmussen was a board member of the Oslo Goldsmiths’ Guild for a number of years and has been the guild’s elder. He was also chairman of the Norwegian Goldsmiths ‘Association’s retail council, and deputy chairman of the Norwegian Goldsmiths’ Association.

It was the development after WWII that resulted in the company’s continued expansion and in 1950 K.A. Rasmussen moved into a newly built factory in Hamar where we still are today. The goldsmith business closed in the 1960s.

For almost 150 years, the company has through thorough work, countless studies and experiments, evaluations and investments developed from being a specialist in wire drawing, to becoming a manufacturer and supplier of both products and services of precious metals.