ROYAL COPENHAGEN
Learn more about Royal Copenhagen:
AN ENTREPRENEURIAL MONARCH
Juliane Marie was the widow of King Frederik V and came to power in Denmark and Norway in the 1700s, a strong woman with a good grasp of the needs of the time. Via her European contacts, she had understood that a combination of knowledge and the use of local raw materials would improve local living conditions, hence her interest in mineralogy and the raw materials for porcelain production.
PRIZE-WINNING ROYAL PORCELAIN | THE THREE BLUE WAVES
When the Dowager Queen Juliane Marie founded the Royal Porcelain Factory in 1775, every piece of porcelain that has left Royal Copenhagen carries its factory marks; the three waves, the royal crown and the painter's mark.
The waves symbolize Denmark's three most important bodies of water; the Sound, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. To this day, the waves are painted on the back of each piece of porcelain and comprise Royal Copenhagen's well-known signature of authenticity, a mark of fine craftsmanship and Danish porcelain art.
THE CRAFTSMANS' MARK
It takes four years to learn the craft of painting on Royal Copenhagen porcelain. And although it may be difficult for a layperson to distinguish one Blue Fluted Plain design from another, accomplished painters always know their own work, as they know their own personal handwriting. Each painter had (and still has) their own stamp, marked on the bottom of every piece of porcelain. Some of the painters are well-known, but some are now a mystery.
