The Royal Copenhagen History 1900-?

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.

With their luxuriant and richly colored 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.

The Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory has had a shop on Amagertorv in Copenhagen since 1885. In 1911 it moved to the old Renaissance building at number 6, an alderman's courtyard dating from 1616, where it remains to this day.

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.

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.

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.

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 characterized by simple ease and natural elegance. With its international connotations, Danish Design became the style of the fifties and sixties, all over the world.

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.

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.

The seventies and eighties were characterized 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.