Plate; porcelain
Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory, 1780–1790

Diam: 24 cm

Inventory number KP 157b

Right from the outset, the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory focused mainly on producing hard-paste porcelain painted in underglaze blue, which was simpler and less expensive to make than the polychrome porcelain; it required only two firings, and only one colour was used for the decorations.¹ Given the relative affordability, the initial assumption was that the blue-and-white porcelain would sell well, but like the factory’s other products, it also faced teething troubles.

For the decorations, patterns were copied from other European factories, particularly from the ones in Meissen and Berlin in Germany. The decorations included the design seen on this plate, which is characterised by the wreath or garland pattern forming a ten-pointed star.² The design also features stylised flower and leaf ornaments as well as insects on the smooth part in the middle, which suggests the influence of the Japanese Kakiemon style.

The David Collection owns another similar plate (KP 157a). Both plates bear the painter’s mark, Friederich Schaltz (1780–1837), who worked as a blue painter at the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory from 1780 to 1837.³

Published in

Bredo L. Grandjean: Kongelig Dansk Porcelain: 1775-1884, København 1962, p. 76;
Dansk kunst og kunsthåndværk, Davids Samling, København 1972, p. 32;
Verner Jul Andersen: Dansk kunst og kunsthåndværk, Davids Samling, 2. ed., København 1983, cat. 54, p. 28;
Lauritz G. Dorenfeldt: Kongeligt porcelæn 1775-1820: blåmalet porcelæn fra Den Kongelige Porcelainsfabrik, København 2004, p. 37;

Footnotes

In 1773, cobalt was discovered near Modum in Norway, which was ruled by Denmark at the time. The Royal Cobalt Works factory was set up there in 1776, extracting the cobalt blue pigment used to paint porcelain.

In Denmark, the design is also known as the ‘Berlin pattern’. See Lauritz Dorenfeldt: Kongeligt porcelæn 1775-1820: blåmalet porcelæn fra Den Kongelige Porcelainsfabrik, Copenhagen 2004, pp. 35–37.

Lauritz Dorenfeldt: Kongeligt porcelæn 1775-1820: blåmalet porcelæn fra Den Kongelige Porcelainsfabrik, Copenhagen 2004, p. 114.