The 2008 Christmas plate beautifully illustrates a Copenhagen Christmas, with blooming Christmas roses and marvellous architecture in the strokes of painter Sven Vestergaard. The evocative motifs also mark the celebration of the 100-year anniversary of Royal Copenhagen’s traditional Christmas plates.
The 100th year of Royal Copenhagen’s Christmas plate is celebrated with a view of the Danish capital and the evocative theme: “Christmas in Copenhagen”. Sven Vestergaard has decorated the 2008 Christmas Plate with his interpretation of the most beautiful of the Danish capital’s towers: the Stock Exchange, City Hall, the Round Tower, Christiansborg Palace, the Church of Our Lady, Our Saviour’s Church and the Marble Church. Svend Vestergaard has been one of the designers behind Royal Copenhagen’s Christmas plates since 1985, and with these characteristic towers and spires, he illustrates the unique landmarks of a city studded with truly rich architecture. The Copenhagen towers motif draws a direct parallel to earlier plate motifs; Our Saviour’s Church appeared as a separate motif in 1917 and the Church of Our Lady in 1949.
In front of the plate's towers, the artist has drawn a bouquet of flowering Christmas roses, inspired by the wonderful story about a poor girl who wanted to bring flowers to Jesus’ crib. As she had no money, she wept so much that Christmas roses began to grow where her tears fell to the earth.
Behind the towers we see the radiance that lights up “Christmas in Copenhagen”. This is a fond reference to the first Royal Copenhagen Christmas Plate, which was created a hundred years ago. On the 1908 plate the artist illuminated the Madonna and Child with the same radiance.
The Christmas plate’s remarkable journey
From the early 19 hundreds until today, where the plate has become a popular collector’s item, the lovely wall decoration has made a long and remarkable journey. At the Nordic Exhibition of 1888, Royal Copenhagen (then known as the Royal Danish Porcelain Manufactory) displayed a series of plates with the factory's three familiar waves and a royal crown, all painted in blue. The plates were intended as advertising for the factory, and they made quite a stir with the public. Crown Princess Louise was so taken with them that she immediately bought one and rumours of the royal purchase spread like wildfire, with the result that people were soon queuing up to buy plates. The plates were incredibly modern and different. In an age when everything was decorated with curlicues and gold, the simplicity and restrained colour palette of the plates were something quite new.
It was 20 years before the Christmas Plate was born as a collectible, however. At the time, a rival porcelain factory Bing & Grøndahl had been batch producing plates since 1895. In the beginning, the motifs were selected on the basis of a contest among the factory’s porcelain painters, which resulted in great variation in expressions. Later, artists took it in turn to supply the motifs, which were often based on various events in Denmark. For example, the plate from 1935 illustrates the Little Belt Bridge that connected Denmark that same year. One of the most well known plate motifs is the kneeling angle on the plate from 1945. At the time, the angel's prayer without a doubt symbolised gratitude for the end of the war and liberation of Denmark.
Famous Danish landmarks, including the Training Ship Danmark, the Little Mermaid, Tivoli’s Pantomime Theatre and Hans Christian Andersen’s House, have also featured on the plates. Hans Christian Andersen’s House provided the motif for the plate in 2005, when the author’s bicentenary was celebrated all over the world.
100 years of production unchanged
At Royal Copenhagen’s factory outside Copenhagen, the plates are made in the same way as over a hundred years ago. The first plates of this type date all the way back to 1895.
The production of the plate for the year starts with the artist, who draws the motif. The artist’s drawing goes to the model shop, where it is transferred to a plaster model freehand. Creating shadows and nuances of colour by scratching the lines of the drawing in relief on the white plaster demands great skill and accuracy. Once the original model has been cut from the drawing, copies are made of it. These moulds can only be used 30-50 times, so new ones have to be made constantly. Then the plate itself is moulded by pressing the porcelain paste down over the mould, on which the motif appears in relief.
The delicate shades of blue that give the plate their character are produced by combining traditional porcelain painting with a special spray technique. The colour is sprayed on carefully in several thin coats and then partly brushed off again. This technique creates a special effect that makes it possible to produce fine shades and nuances. From under a transparent coating of clear glaze the colour shines out with a vibrancy all of its own. This technique is still recognised today as being typical of Royal Copenhagen’s plates.
The 100th anniversary of Royal Copenhagen’s Christmas plate is being celebrated in 2008 with festivities and events in Denmark, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Italy and the United States. For the occasion, Royal Copenhagen has produced an exclusive silk scarf showing 26 of the last 100 years of plate motifs. The gorgeous scarf in shades of blue will be on sale in select stores in Europe and Asia.
Click here for danish version
About Royal Copenhagen A/S
Royal Copenhagen, officially the Royal Porcelain Factory (in Danish: Den Kongelige Porcelainsfabrik), was founded in Copenhagen in 1775 under the protection of Queen Juliane Marie and has been recognised ever since by its factory mark, the three wavy lines above each other, which symbolises the three straits that back then divided Denmark: Øresund, Store Bælt and Lille Bælt.
Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl are trademarks of Royal Copenhagen A/S.