Posts tagged ‘Bjorn Wiinblad’

Jul 29

Bjorn Wiinblad, Nymolle Calendar Plaques

This story is a charming personal interpretation, from a Danish perspective, about the Bjorn Wiinblad series of calendar plaques for Nymolle. It was orignally published on the original iteration of this site “Retro Pottery Net” in 2011. It is told by Karen from Denmark, who was of great assistance to me when I first started this blog/website way back in 2009, especially with translations, and the work of Bjorn Wiinblad which she admires and collects.

Text Copyright: Karen Andersen, Denmark. Photographs Copyright Ray Garrod.

The month plaques are a series of twelve plaques that Bjørn Wiinblad designed sometime in the nineteen- fifties or sixties. The drawings tell us about the Danish weather and traditions in the twelve months of the year, but they are also a continuous story about a couple who fall in love and have a baby. Each plaque has a title written on the back, which will give you a hint on how the story progresses. These month plaques were sold from Danish stores for a period of about thirty years, so they are not that rare, but have continued to be popular to this day. Each plaque has its own priceless charm and beauty which I hope you will enjoy as much as I do.

When I was a child, we had around six of the plaques hanging in our kitchen, since my mother thought that twelve plaques were too much on a single wall. I quickly discovered that they were just part of a story, so whenever I visited friends who had all the plaques, I scrutinized them with great interest, as I was trying to put the whole story together.

In my teenage years I began to wonder in which age the story takes place, but they dress so differently on the plaques that it is impossible. I guess it just takes place in Bjørn Wiinbad’s enchanted romantic world, with a different dress code and better weather than in everyday Denmark.

Today I have all the month plaques plus a few extra hanging in my own kitchen, so now I am able to share the whole story.

January – Contact

This is where the couple first meet. The young man is ice skating which is quite normal at this time of year. But the young lady is in some sort of ice sled that I have never seen in my time and age. It looks like a picture from around 1900 – but surely, a romantic scene for a first encounter. A quite morbid detail however, is all the fur with stuffed animal faces – two hats, a scarf and a muff.

February – Masquerade

Our couple have dressed up in February. Masquerades are not that common, so I guess this refers to “Fastelavn”. That is a Danish tradition where mainly the children dress up and “beat the cat off the barrel” – a medieval tradition that resembles the Mexican Piñata.

March – Victory

Still partying indoors I guess, since there are certainly no roses outside at this time of the year. The cupids suggest that this is where our young man wins the lady’s heart – and maybe some more….so let me just say that a baby is born nine months later.

April – Conflict

This is the only plaque where it rains – should this have been a realistic story, there ought to have been rain on at least two or three other plaques. My guess is that in April she finds out she is pregnant and he gets cold feet. The rain in April is certainly realistic, but so are their clothes. Gone are the flowers in their hair and the long dresses, they look just like an everyday young couple waiting at a bus stop. They are both holding out their hands to feel if the rain stops, so I guess there is hope for the future.

May – Harmony

Back together again – and the weather is how we always dream it should be in May. So they have gotten used to the idea of being parents it seems. Notice how Wiinblad has tried to incorporate the little holes at the top of the plaques in the motives. It works on this plaque, but on the April plaque the hole is too low be at the top of the umbrella. This annoyed me quite a bit when I was a child, but now I find it rather charming. Read more

Oct 10

5 Comments

Den Permanente, Copenhagen

Den Permanente was a very important and relevant Danish Design & Craft store in Copenhagen which operated from the 1930s to the late 1980s. It is particularly relevant to this site as many of the Potters written about here exhibited and sold work at Den Permanente.

The idea for the store was that of Kay Bojesen, a Danish silversmith – but probably today best known for his wooden monkey design. It became a commercial reality when the idea was developed by Christian Grauballe, director of Holmegaard in 1931.

Den Permanente operated as a “Permanent Exhibition of Danish Arts” and promoted the very best in modern Danish design and craft. A large range of objects were sold including furniture, glassware, lighting, ceramics, jewellery and textiles.

Den Permanente, Copenhagen, Photographer J.C. Raulston 1972

Items for exhibition and/or sale were chosen after being assessed by a “Jury” and the managing board. There is a fascinating explanation of the process and more written in 1965 by its director Esbjorn Hoirt which can be read HERE

The store was important not only in Denmark for promoting Danish Design, but world wide. Den Permanente took part in several international exhibitions including the Milan Triennales of 1951-1960; a 1954-1957 exhibition in the U.S. called “Design in Scandinavia” ; “Formes Scandinaves” in Paris 1958; Neue Form aus Denmark Germany/Austria 1957; and “Arts of Denmark” in the U.S. 1960-61.

It is fascinating to be able to read old catalogues from Den Permanente, and the Royal Danish Library in its fascinating Digital Collections has several Den Permanente catalogues which are well worth looking through. Many of the Danish Ceramicists written about on this site have work in the Catalogues. It is fascinating to see works by people such as Bjorn Wiinblad, Ditlev, Helle Allpass, Palshus and many many more.

There don’t seem to be many photographs of the actual store online, but there are several in the archives of the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University, United States, which is where the first 4 images are from.

Den Permanente, Copenhagen, Photographer J.C. Raulston 1972

Feb 26

Rosenthal/Bjorn Wiinblad, The Magic Flute

Bjorn Wiinblad “The Magic Flute”, Rosenthal Studio Line.

Further back on this site I have an introduction to Bjorn Wiinblad’s designs for the Rosenthal “Studio Line”. This article features one of his more spectacular designs for Rosenthal – “The Magic Flute” or “Zauberflöte”.

Each piece of this design depicts a different scene from Mozart’s opera, and texts of libretto of the opera are written onto the bottom of many of the pieces in this series, including on the saucers of the cups.

Many of the forms in the series are instantly recognisable as Wiinblad in design, especially when looking at the exotic domed or minaret shape of many of the lids on teapots, bowls etc, and on closer inspection of the detail in the charming embossed illustrations.

The setting is one of the most technically sophisticated and expensive services ever produced by Rosenthal – and is still in production. The design comes in pure white as well as the gold, and gold/white. The first 5 images are of pieces I found at auction a few years ago, and the others from around the web.

You can see more of the amazing pieces of this series, and more of the story of the design on the Rosenthal website HERE where the extract below is from:

It was necessary to create space through extremely wide plate rims for these scenes. On this stage of porcelain Wiinblad tells the story of the opera in a relief with detailed figures and ornamentation. Time and again one finds something new in these scenes. The rims had to be as wide as never before on plates. In order to prevent them flopping down during firing, a special firing technique had to be developed. The service “Zauberflöte” possesses something so special that it is not apparent at first glance: a decoration on the underside of the porcelain! Even in the white range, all pieces carry on the underside the text of the opera libretto of the scene depicted in the relevant porcelain relief. Written in Björn Wiinblad´s ornamental handwriting and decorated with gold. A further feature of this service: the relief surfaces are not glazed but smoothed and polished after the second firing in a highly elaborate procedure. This produces the delicate, matt effect of the relief forming a most attractive contrast to the glazed surfaces.