Frans Zwollo Sr. (Amsterdam, April 4, 1872 - Amstelveen, January 31, 1945) was a Dutch goldsmith and jewelry designer. Together with Jan Eisenloeffel, Zwollo exerted great influence on goldsmithing. Life and work Zwollo was the youngest son of Johannes (Jan) Zwollo sr., silversmith and manager of the silver factory of the Bonebakker company, and Johanna Francisca Clara Meijer. Like his brothers Maarten Zwollo and Johannes Zwollo jr., he learned the principles of the trade from his father. He attended the Amsterdam Teekenschool voor Kunstambachten and learned to carve with the silversmith Frans Wildring. From 1888 to 1892 he was employed by the firm of Bonebakker and Son and then worked briefly at the firm of Delheid in Brussels. From 1893 he was an independent silversmith in Amsterdam, occasionally producing commissioned work for the firms Bonebakker and Hoeker & Zoon. From 1897 to 1907, Zwollo taught metalwork at the Haarlem School of Arts and Crafts. There he met Karel de Bazel and through him came in contact with theosophy. Zwollo, De Bazel and his associate Mathieu Lauweriks worked at 't Binnenhuis from 1900 to 1901. From 1910 to 1914, under Lauweriks, he taught at the Staatliches Handfertigkeit Seminar in Hagen, Germany, and became chief of the Hagener Silberschmiede. After the outbreak of World War I, he returned to the Netherlands. He was a teacher at the Academy in The Hague from 1914 to 1931 and taught his son Frans Zwollo Jr. and Willem Valk, among others. He had his own studio in The Hague, where he produced work for Helene Kröller-Müller, among others. From 1935 until his retirement in 1937, Zwollo was a teacher at the Schoonhoven Technical School. In later life he worked together with his cousin Marinus Zwollo. From its founding in 1904, Zwollo was a member of the Vereeniging voor Ambachts- en Nijverheidskunst (VANK), he was also a member of Arti et Industriae. Recognition Zwollo won a bronze medal at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. He won gold medals three times: in 1902 at an international exhibition of decorative arts in Turin, in 1907 in Amsterdam and in 1925 in Paris at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes.