Date: circa 1785
Maker: Royal Porcelain Factory (Kongelige Porcelænsfabrik)
Steen Nottelmann, the former curator of archives and collections for Royal Copenhagen, dates this beautiful small teapot to around 1785, only a decade after porcelain production began in Denmark. Mr. Nottelmann praises both the delicate shading and “rich and bright” colouring on the teapot, as well as the “fine gold decoration” on the spout, handle and lid, which is topped by a gilded rose bud finial. The orange tulip is of outstanding artistry.
In 1775, with backing from the Danish royal family, chemist Franz Heinrich Müller founded a company to make hard-paste porcelain using kaolin (china clay) from Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic Sea. An old post yard, on Købmagergade in central Copenhagen, was converted into a manufactory, and three wavy blue lines, representing Denmark’s three straits connecting the Baltic and the North Sea, were adopted as a factory mark. In 1779, King Christian VII assumed financial responsibility and the company became Den Kongelige Porcelænsfabrik or The Royal Porcelain Factory. The name endured until 1985 when it changed to Royal Copenhagen.
Royal Copenhagen calls the style of decoration on the teapot ‘Saxon Flowers’ after Meissen, the small town outside Dresden, capital of Saxony, where porcelain production started in 1710. Saxon Flowers are also known as Deutsche Blümen (German flowers).
The bottom of the teapot bears the factory mark of three wavy lines.
Condition: Losses to gilding. Otherwise perfect.
Height: 9.9 cm; Width, including spout and handle: 15.6 cm
Weight: 312 g
Medium: Hard-paste porcelain
Origin: Copenhagen, Denmark
For more background on the factory, see History of Royal Copenhagen in Makers & Artists
