Danish Factory Potteries

Jan 11

Lin Utzon, Rosendahl, Hans Christian Andersen Dinner Service

Lin Utzon for Rosendahl Denmark

This post is about a design that is not quite 20th Century, but very close to it. Also it ticks all the right boxes for me – Danish, Blue & White, Great Designer, Superb Porcelain, First class Manufacturer.

Erik Rosendahl established Rosendahl, Copenhagen in 1984. They are one of the top manufacturers in Denmark of design for the home and table. Their list of their designers and licences is remarkable.

In 2005, to mark the bicentenary of HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, Rosendahl launched a Hans Christian Andersen dinner service, designed by Lin Utzon to celebrate this anniversary.

The 31cm service plates from the dinner service below, designed by Lin Utzon, are inspired by six of Hans Christian Andersen’s best-known fairy tales: The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, The Butterfly, Thumbelina and The Nightingale. The motifs are white and stand out brilliantly against the deepest of cobalt blues – a combination that hallmarks many of Lin Utzon’s creations. This dinner service won the prestigious Germany design prize DESIGN PLUS 2004.

Lin Utzon, Rosendahl, Hans Christian Andersen Dinner Service – The Ugly Duckling/Swan

Knud Kyhn

Knud Khyn was a an accomplished Danish painter, draughtsman and ceramic sculptor. My interest in his work lies in his evocative, superbly modelled ceramics.

He worked at Royal Copenhagen over several periods - c1903-1910, c1924-1932 and c1936-1967.

He also worked at Herman Kähler's Pottery c1920-1924 and also at Bing & Grondahl 1908-1915 and 1933-1935.

His animal figurines capture so so well the mass and expression of his subjects, in addition to capturing the essence of their characters, how they move, and how they play.

Marianne Starck “Negro” Series Overview, Michael Andersen & Sons

Marianne Starck 1931 – 2007 worked at Michael Andersen & Sons, Bornholm as the Artistic Director from 1955 to its closure in 1993. During these decades her output of designs was vast – but isn’t well catalogued. Every year I continue to find designs by her which I haven’t come across previously.

Marianne originally come from Germany where she undertook an apprenticeship at the Thoms pottery in northern Germany, and later studied graphic design in Germany at Landeskunstschule (University of Fine Arts, Hamburg). Her most successful designs at Michael Andersen & Sons often have very strong graphic elements as part of the design – reflecting her training in this field.

One of her most striking and now most coveted and popular series of designs was for the 1950s “Negro” series. This series features white motifs carved through to black clay – the form would have been slip cast first and then finished and carved by hand and you can usually see the carve marks in the black clay.

The motifs in this series vary from abstract forms, to stylised plants, animals and human forms to simple repeat patterns. Usually the glaze is a bright white, but there are also pieces which have a white glaze speckled with oatmeal colour.

There are also some variations on this series which I will show in a future post.

Below are some of the designs I have had, which are just a fraction of the forms from this very large and popular series: