Jette Hellerøe & Einar Hellerøe, Denmark

by Ray on August 2, 2019

Jette Hellerøe + Einar Hellerøe, Denmark

Jette Hellerøe: (b. 1940) Became a ceramist after studying at the Copenhagen school of fine arts in 1960. Her Father was Einar Hellerøe, and Jette worked at her father’s factory before, during and after completing her degree. At her Father’s pottery she also produced work under her own name.

Einar’s studio was called Haslev Keramik, founded in 1940, and was located in Haslev – a town in the southern part of Sjælland/Zealand.

Jette worked at Haslev Keramik until 1972, and then moved to Lønstrup (northern Jutland in Denmark) with her husband Flemming Schouboe where they set up their own pottery and shop. Flemming helped with the production, especially handling the firing processes and the glaze, but did not create work under his own name. This studio operated up until 2001.

Jette is also known for the work she produced for BR Keramik and Axella Keramik. BR stands for Brothers Rasmussen – a wholesaler of ceramics, who had a number of ceramicists produce work for them, and release it under the BR brand.

I have recently been able to solve a long running mystery about mid-century Danish Ceramics thanks to Jette’s granddaughter Sofie.

It is often been thought that Jette might have designed the now iconic “Amazonas” dinnerware for BR Keramik…but puzzlingly it was often signed EH – and has often been mis-attributed to Danish Potter, Eigil Hinrichsen – which I have always had doubts about.

I can confirm that Amazonas was in fact designed and made by Jette’s father Einar Hellerøe, around 1958, hence the EH cypher. The EH cypher Einar used is quite different to that of Eigil Hinrichsen (as well as the style of work) – but the mis-attribution seems to have spread widely. Further on I have some images of other works with Einar’s cypher for BR Keramik.