Ante, the founder of the Grubišić coppersmith workshop for making Pot Stills, was born in 1934. He started his craft learning in 1949 – at the age of 15, when he became a student of Ilija Trtica. Ante finished his education in 1952 and continued to work as an apprentice in Trtica’s workshop in Ruma.
From 1954 to 1956, he went to serve his military service, after which he returned to Ilija’s workshop and remained until 1960, when he made a couple of years of pausing.

In 1964, Ante and his sister’s husband opened the workshop”Grubišić – Lakaj.” After a year of work, they separated – Andrija Lakaj opened a Sheet metal workshop. Ante opened his Coppersmith workshop in the coming years; he taught his son Darko copper craft., to hand over the company to him in 1984.

After 44 years of work, Ante retired in 1993, and his son Darko took over the workshop. Ante is now 89 years old and, although retired, still works with Darko, producing traditional copper cauldrons for brandy. Together, they pass on their knowledge to Darko’s sons Igor and Dejan, who will one day take over the business and continue this family tradition.

We want to praise and mention that our family coppersmith workshop has a longer history. To be specific, Ante’s father-in-law, Martin Müller, was also a Coopersmith. He also went to famous coppersmith Ilija Trtica from 1935-1938. to learn to craft copper cauldrons for brandy.