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ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie">
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ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie">
|
ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie">
|
ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie">
|
ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie">
|
ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie">
|
ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie">
|
ROYAL COPENHAGEN FIGURINES REPLACEMENT DINNERWARE VASES DISHES
PLATES COLLECTIBLES BLUE FLUTED FLOWERS SEAGULL AND MUCH MORE
THE STORY ABOUT ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN
The foundation
By the time the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory was founded on 1 May
1775 under the patronage of Queen Juliane Marie, more than one hundred years
of persistent efforts had gone into to eliciting the secret of porcelain
making from the Chinese.
An alchemist's heart for "white gold"
The alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger produced the first European porcelain
in Dresden in 1709. Although King August the Strong zealously guarded both
the alchemist and his formula, as the century proceeded many European
kingdoms succeeded in establishing their own porcelain manufactories, where
they produced the rare material nicknamed "white gold".
In Denmark the chemist Frantz Henrich Müller had put his heart and soul into
the enterprise. Following years of experimentation and trials he succeeded
in producing the coveted hard porcelain, and receiving the backing of the
royal family.
An old post office on Købmagergade, in the centre of Copenhagen, was
converted to house the manufactory.
A laborious beginning (1775-1779)
The manufactory's first years were a hard daily struggle against variable
and poor raw materials, lack of experience, unsuccessful firings,
disappointing experiments. But Müller and his small select team of artisans
laboured with determination and persistence, and succeeded in creating such
a solid basis for the manufactory's continued survival that the absolute
monarch King Christian VII acceded and took over in 1779, thus guaranteeing
the future of the porcelain manufactory.
The no. 1 pattern
The first dinner service pattern to be selected was Blue Fluted. This was a
popular pattern in Europe's first porcelain manufactories. Since the taut
stylised floral motive originated in China, it was considered the epitome of
genuine porcelain. At Royal Copenhagen we continue to paint the pattern by
hand, even today. Therefore, Blue Fluted would gradually become synonymous
with Danish porcelain.
A bouquet, kept fresh for more than 200
years
In 1779 another blue dinner service, still in production today, followed:
Blue Flower. As opposed to Blue Fluted, this pattern reflected the
contemporary European style of naturalistic flowers.
Danish porcelain's first blossoming
A period of blossoming followed. The manufactory's clientele were
predominantly the royal family and the nobility. Porcelain was a prestigious
status symbol in the 1700s. Commissions for coffee and tea services, not to
mention large, elaborate vases, ran to sums that today would be computed in
millions. Porcelain was principally commissioned as gifts for family members
and foreign monarchs. The works produced were richly decorated in
multicoloured overglaze and delicately modelled details.
MARKS: Here you can see when the
porcelain are produced.
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A dinner service fit for kings
The largest and most renowned of these commissions was the exquisite Flora
Danica dinner service. It was commissioned in 1790 by the Danish king,
according to legend for Catherine the Great of Russia. Danish flora was
reproduced on the porcelain, copying the copperplates published in one of
the Age of Enlightenment's greatest botanical works, Flora Danica. When the
service was delivered to the royal family, 12 years later, it comprised
1,802 pieces. The service was revived for the marriage of Princess Alexandra
of Denmark to the future King Edward VII of England in 1863. Flora Danica is
still painted by hand today at Royal Copenhagen.
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he hard years of the Napoleonic wars
The Napoleonic Wars raged throughout Europe. The English bombarded
Copenhagen in 1807, causing large-scale devastation that almost annihilated
the porcelain manufactory. Fuel, kaolin and other raw materials were in
short supply. Between 1809 and 1811 most of workforce was let go or put on
deferment wages.
But, as it worked out, looking at Danish porcelain from a longer-term
historical perspective, slump and boom alternated. A radical revival in
production started in 1816, followed a few years later by a marked artistic
upswing. |
The Golden age & Hetsch (1800-1850)
During what has come to be termed the Golden Age of Danish culture, which
lasted until the mid-1800s, the porcelain manufactory again flourished and
its production range was influenced by the classical ideals of the era.
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Inspired by foreign styles, patterns
and colours
The period's trend-setting architect, G.F. Hetsch, was the porcelain
manufactory's artistic director. He assigned several artists to the factory,
notably the flower painter J.L. Jensen, who distinguished himself with his
multicoloured overglaze paintings. Hetsch designed several neo-classical
services and elaborate vases richly ornamented in gold. He often found
inspiration, as was customary at the time, in foreign styles, patterns and
colours. But he inevitably refined the style in his endeavour to find
'purity', which for him was the distinguishing feature of Danish porcelain
and therefore essential to national identity in this period, when the Royal
Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory's role as the nation's flagship was
growing. |
The first official exhibition
The porcelain manufactory's artistic performance was raised to such a pitch
under Hetch's leadership that in 1851 the factory qualified to participate
in its first official exhibition, the World Exhibition at the Crystal
Palace, London.
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Krog & Krohn - Porcelain's modern
breakthrough (1850-1900) |
A new era
Absolute monarchy was abolished in Denmark in 1849. Old state monopolies
disappeared and privileges were revoked with the introduction of the new
constitution. The old porcelain factory was now compelled to prove its
viability on the free market. Soon, Denmark's other large porcelain factory
appears: Bing & Grøndahl. Frederik Vilhelm Grøndahl, co-founder of Bing &
Grøndahl in 1853.
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he appearance of Bing & Grøndahl
The figure maker Frederik Vilhelm Grøndahl proposed that Meyer Herman and
Jacob Herman Bing, two brothers who were art dealers in the city, should
establish a porcelain manufactory. It would produce biscuit figurines based
on the works of Thorvaldsen, the renowned Danish sculptor. Grøndahl had a
great deal of experience in the production process involved from his years
with the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, where he trained. Bing &
Grøndahl was founded on 19 April 1853. |
In private hands
The Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory came into private hands in 1868.
In 1882 the Alumina faience factory purchased the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain
Manufactory, which shortly afterwards moved to a then modern factory
building at Alumina's site in Frederiksberg on the outskirts of Copenhagen.
Royal Copenhagen still operates from there today.
Both porcelain factories benefited from the new bourgeoisie, who had money
to spend in an age of mounting industrialisation. They were now financially
prepared for a concerted artistic onslaught, which in the latter half of the
century would lead Danish porcelain to the modern breakthrough in the
history of porcelain. Whereas others chose to concentrate on the ethos of
mass production inherent in the Industrial Revolution, the Danish porcelain
manufacturers resolutely put their energies into conserving, reviving and
developing the artistic and craft qualities of their products. |
The artistic directors set the scene
A broad-based group of Danish industrialists, artists and craftspeople
constituted the driving force behind porcelain's modern breakthrough.
However, the primary stimulus was supplied by the artistic directors of the
two porcelain manufactories: the architect Arnold Krog at the Royal
Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, 1885-1916, and the painter Pietro Krohn at
Bing & Grøndahl, 1885-1892, followed by the sculptor and painter J.F.
Willumsen, 1897-1900.
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A fresh natural resonance
Renewal focused on the underglaze technique. Hitherto the technique had been
used solely for plain blue painting, as for instance in the Blue Fluted
pattern. Taking their inspiration from the era's idolisation of nature and
from Japanese woodcuts, the Danes refined a type of watercolour technique in
which the colour was both applied with a brush and sprayed on to give a
fresh natural resonance. A chrome green and a golden brown/red were
gradually added. |
Art nouveau
Audacious and free modelling was also manifest in this period. In 1886-88
Pietro Krohn anticipated the art nouveau genre with his Heron service, while
notably Eiffie Hegermann-Lindencrone's perforated, carved porcelain urns and
J.F. Willumsen's powerful works stood out convincingly at the turn of the
century.
Danish underglaze porcelain attracted great attention at the World
Exposition in Paris in 1889 and was awarded the Grand Prix. The
international breakthrough was guaranteed. Efforts intensified in subsequent
years, culminating in prizes, honours and commendations at the World
Exposition in Paris in 1900. |
An international clientele
Museums and collectors the world over vied with each other to acquire the
new underglaze works at exorbitant prices.
In 1890 the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory opened a shop in Paris.
In 1897 another shop was opened on the fashionable Old Bond Street in
London. Among its exclusive clientele the Copenhagen shop at this time
boasted the Russian Tsar, Alexander III. The collection he left behind in
St. Petersburg bears witness to his esteem for Danish underglaze porcelain.
Devotion to artistic matters demands abundant resources. On several
occasions in the 1890s the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory and Bing &
Grøndahl were advised to combine their resources to guarantee an
international position for Danish porcelain. It would take another 100
years, however, for such a merger to become a reality. |
Christmas Plate, Seagull Service and
figurines
The newly developed underglaze technique was quickly adapted to the
production process. Using a specific version, in which the decoration is cut
in relief and interchanging layers of colour produce a variety of blue
shades, the underglaze painter F.A. Hallin produced the first Christmas
Plate in 1895. At about the same time, the painter Fanny Garde designed her
Seagull Service in the new art nouveau style. A service that a few
generations later would be designated "Denmark's National Service".
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Another cornerstone were laid
But most notably in this period, the foundations were laid for naturalistic
vase painting depicting landscapes, marine and animal motifs, and
corresponding figurines of animals and humans, which were destined to become
one of the cornerstones of Danish porcelain production. |
The dawn of a century of modernity
The new century began with a craving to again break through the confines and
search for new idioms for a modern time. At the porcelain factory several
skilled artists pursued their own cogent paths. |
A golden age for Danish faience
With their luxuriant and richly coloured Alumina faience in typical Danish
art nouveau style, Christian Joachim and Harald Slott-Møller created a
golden age for Danish faience. The sculptor Gerhard Henning caused a stir
with his elegantly refined porcelain figurines, elaborately decorated
overglaze in oriental fairy-tale mode. In sharp contrast, interest also
emerged in robust stoneware, a genre in which Patrick Nordström showed the
way with his pioneering experiments in stoneware glazes. |
Between the wars
Two predominant styles, art deco and functionalism, marked the years between
the two world wars.
Both discernibly influence Danish porcelain, although imbued with a typical
Danish interpretation, in other words, the addition of equal measures of
common sense, humanity and harmony. |
A straightforward, relaxed elegance
It subdues the otherwise more exaggerated and flippant art deco of the
roaring twenties with more discreet shapes and decorations, as for example
in Christian Joachim's and Thorkild Olsen's porcelain services.
To what was under different skies often very stout and ascetic functionalism
Danes added friendly rounded shapes and a straightforward, relaxed elegance.
One example is Ebbe Sadolin's Dinner Service of the Thirties, where
functionalism becomes the forerunner of the style that would later catch on
internationally as Danish Design. |
Danish Design
Sparse decorative works also represented Danish ceramic art strongly and
originally. Examples include Kai Nielsen's naturalistic sculptures in pure
white, glossy, undecorated porcelain that accentuates his rounded shapes,
Arno Malinowski's figurine series in blanc-de-chine porcelain, Jean
Gauguin's wild expressionist faience sculptures and Axel Salto's unique
stoneware in fruit-like shapes, geometric patterns and rich autumn tones.
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Scandinavian Design (1950-1970)
After the Second World War people took a more optimistic view of the future:
a new and better world would be rebuilt. Simultaneously, the democratisation
of society resulted in heightened awareness of and broader interest in
decorative art and applied art, generally. Everyone should have an
opportunity to acquire beautiful and functional objects. In Denmark this led
to a definitive style characterised by simple ease and natural elegance.
With its international connotations, Danish Design became the style of the
fifties and sixties, all over the world. |
Virtuosity and competence
At the Danish porcelain manufactories the style was adapted with great
virtuosity and competence, in both stoneware and porcelain. Among the
renowned artists, ceramists and designers of the period were Axel Salto,
Thorkild Olsen, Gertrud Vasegaard, Nils Thorsson, Magnus Stephensen and Erik
Magnussen. |
Generous, organic shapes
Two services from this period testify to two different parallel design
lines: the sculptor Henning Koppel's service from the early Sixties, in
which generous, organic shapes in glossy, white porcelain suggest luxury,
although remaining simple and functional; and the architect Grethe Meyer's
taut, functional faience service Blue Line with sober grey glaze and a
simple blue line, which was destined to become the most popular Danish
service in a modern idiom. |
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The merger years (1970-2000) |
Diversity
The seventies and eighties were characterised by contrasting styles.
Firstly, the nostalgic back-to-nature style of rustic handicraft, which
found its way to almost every home. The porcelain manufactories expanded
their artistic workshops, giving a host of ceramists an opportunity to
experiment freely.
Rustic was followed by its opposites: high-tech, post-modernism and,
finally, an elaborate new rococo, which found its earliest and most
illustrious expression in the Triton porcelain service, designed by the
goldsmith Arje Griest.
Towards the end of the 20th century international competition intensified to
such an extent that the European art industry was compelled to amalgamate
its resources in mergers, buy-outs and new partnerships. |
Joined forces
The Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory had already bought Georg Jensen
Silversmiths in 1972.
In 1985 the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory and Holmegaard Glassworks
merged under the name Royal Copenhagen A/S.
In 1987 Bing & Grøndahl joined Royal Copenhagen. The intention was to secure
a strong position for the Danish art industry globally. |
Globalisation
Numerous foreign subsidiaries are strengthened and established, and Royal
Copenhagen shops open on prestigious thoroughfares in cities throughout
Europe, the USA, East Asia and Australia.
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Royal Scandinavia is a reality
Finally, the best of the Danish and Swedish art industry merged when Royal
Copenhagen joined forces with the Swedish glass works Orrefors and Kosta
Boda under the name Royal Scandinavia.
The porcelain division continued to bear the name Royal Copenhagen.
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Art and utility
The last decade of the century was naturally marked by efforts to further
the most essential attributes of each of the tradition-steeped companies,
which were now united in one entity.
With respect to porcelain, renewal concentrated on two significant lines:
developing and introducing new everyday items, while simultaneously
experimenting with freer expression. A dual process that down through
history has been the vital challenge facing Danish porcelain.
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New and luxuriant functionalism
The ultimate winner of the nineties was launched in 1993, with ceramist
Ursula Munch-Petersen's version of new and luxuriant functionalism in the
Ursula faience service.
In 1998 the ceramist Ole Jensen designed a series of sculptural applied art
objects, under the collective name Ole. The collection is composed of
individual items for the kitchen and table, with the shared idea of making
play of work.
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Providing the free artistic expression
Some of Denmark's best visual artists are providing the free artistic
expression. Names of note include Jens Birkemose, Carl-Henning Pedersen,
Bjørn Nørgaard, Arne Haugen Sørensen, Peter Brandes, Torben Ebbesen, Lise
Malinowsky, Maja-Lisa Engelhardt and Doris Bloom, while the porcelain
factory's full-time ceramists Sten Lykke Madsen, with his fabulous
sculptures, and Ivan Weiss, with his metre-high urns and tiny ceramic boxes,
combine to demonstrate the broadness of approach and openness with which
Royal Copenhagen greets the new millennium.
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Today's porcelain since 1775
In 2000 Danish porcelain celebrates its 225th anniversary under the name
Royal Copenhagen, as Denmark's oldest design company.
The anniversary reflects the highlights of 225 years: the heritage of
history, tradition and craftsmanship is illustrated in re-editions and new
editions of the Blue Fluted service, first produced in 1775.
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A blue line in Danish design
The neo-functionalist, colourful version of Grethe Meyer's Blue Line
service, dating from 1965, acknowledges the debt we owe to the 20th
century's concept: Danish Design.
And as Royal Copenhagen throws down the gauntlet to designers and ceramists
to present their visions for the dinner service of the future, the new
Millennium is declared open.
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BASED ON INFORMATION FROM ROYAL COPENHAGEN |
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