Royal Copenhagen

Danish porcelain has been popular since 1775, when the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Works was founded. The earliest Royal Copenhagen pieces were glazed in cobalt blue. Blue Flower (1780), one of the first patterns, is still being made, and like most of the dishes made today by Royal Copenhagen, it is still painted by hand. The […]

Gustavsberg

The twentieth-century ceramics made by the Gustavsberg factory in Sweden were in the art deco style. Best-known is the 1930s Argenta Ware, green or blue glazed stoneware with silver-inlay decorations. The company was founded in 1827 near Stockholm, Sweden. At first it made transfer-printed creamware in the English style and, by the 1860s, majolica. Bone […]

Rörstrand

Rörstrand, Europe’s second-oldest ceramics firm, was established in Stockholm in 1726. Rörstrand first manufactured only earthenware, but in 1857 it began producing porcelain. In the early twentieth century, Rörstrand was known for the art nouveau porcelain designed by Alf Wallander, who was artistic director there for periods during the years 1895 to 1914. After Rörstrand […]

Dahl Jensen

Danish designer Jens Peter Dahl-Jensen (1874-1960) was employed at the Bing and Grondahl works for twenty years. In 1925 he opened his own factory to make porcelain figurines. Before production stopped in 1981, his company produced almost 400 figurines, about 280 sculpted by Dahl-Jensen. The company closed in 1984. Dahl-Jensen’s figurines depicting Danish children and […]

Bing & Grondahl

Frederik Grondahl, who had worked at the Royal Copenhagen factory as a modeler of figurines, and the brothers M.H. and J.H. Bing started the Bing and Grondahl Porcelain factory in 1853. In 1889 the company exhibited its first pieces with underglaze decoration. About 1892 the company was making Seagull pattern dinnerware, which is still popular. […]

Arabia, A Company In Finland

The Swedish company Rorstrand founded a subsidiary, Arabia, in Helsinki, Finland, in 1873. Arabia made ceramics in the conservative style of the period. In 1916 Rorstrand sold Arabia to a Finnish company. By the 1940s, it was the largest porcelain maker in Europe. Arabia created dishes based on classic and art deco designs. In the […]