"Mandarin" Pendant by Michael Bang for Holmegaard/Royal Copenhagen, 1980s

Producers of the finest in Danish porcelain, Royal Copenhagen is a company steeped in tradition. Its celebrated blue-and-white china patterns as well as its famed hallmark depicting the royal crown and three waves — symbolizing the monarch who founded the company and the three major waterways of Denmark — are emblems of master craftsmanship.

Royal Copenhagen was founded in 1775 by Queen Juliane Marie. Years earlier, after the death of her husband, King Frederick V, Juliane’s stepson ascended the throne. Shortly into his reign, he went insane, and the Queen became the head of Denmark and its small empire. She sought to improve Denmark’s economy and founded factories around the country to promote domestic growth and international trade. Royal Copenhagen was one of the first of these. Royal Copenhagen first made dinnerware and vases with blue-and-white motifs inspired by Chinese porcelain, then the rage in aristocratic Europe. Many of these designs are still made today.

Apart from its classic patterns, Royal Copenhagen has adapted to the changing styles of time and appeals to many different tastes. Their prolific body of work includes Rococo-style porcelain statues that incorporate stylistic floral patterns in an Art Nouveau style, as well as modern vases by such noted 20th century Danish ceramists as Axel Salto. Whether used for special occasions or displayed as part of a design collection, Royal Copenhagen pieces represent a legacy of the highest quality.

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Holmegaard has been creating quality glassware for almost two centuries. The legendary glassworks has collaborated with scores of celebrated designers over its long history, including Arne Jacobsen, Louise Campbell, Bodil Kjær and many others, with each artisan crafting vases, bottles and other serveware and decorative objects that are widely loved by collectors and art connoisseurs alike. Today Holmegaard is a powerhouse of functionalist modern Danish glass design.

Holmegaard Glassworks was the dream of Danish Count Christian Danneskiold-Samsøe, who petitioned the king of Denmark for permission to build a factory. Sadly, by the time permission was granted, the count had passed away, leaving his dowager, the Countess Henriette Danneskiold-Samsøe, to carry on her late husband’s dream in 1825. The factory was established in the town of Fensmark in the Holmegaard bog, where rich peat could be harvested and used to fuel the high-temperature kilns required to produce glass there.

The factory initially produced only simple mouth-blown green glass packaging bottles — the need was for glassware that was merely functional. It wasn’t until the 1920s that it made progress as a significant entity in the world of design. There was a fruitful partnership to create dinner glassware with the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory and glass artist Oluf Jensen. This was followed in 1925 by Holmegaard’s hiring Jacob Eiler Bang as the glassworks’ first in-house designer.

Bang was trained as an architect and was working on the Danish Pavilion at the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts — the fair that brought the Art Deco style to worldwide attention — when his efforts caught the attention of Holmegaard. Bang believed in the concept of making things that were “beautiful, strong, practical and cheap.” His seductive, functionalist designs for vases, decanters, bottles and other objects — guided by the theories that underpin Scandinavian modernism — garnered acclaim for both Bang and Holmegaard, and he became known as one of the fathers of functionalism in Danish glassware.

Holmegaard went on to work with Per Lütken, who created intricate objects that redefined the factory’s style and Danish glass design as a whole. Lütken produced over 3,000 pieces for the glassworks, including the revered Provence bowl, one of the pieces for which the glassworks is best known. The brand went on to work with other notable artists including Otto Brauer and Jacob Bang’s son, Michael Bang, whose Palet range, Fontaine wine glass range, and Mandarin lamps are among Holmegaard’s most iconic creations.

Today, Holmegaard Glassworks is owned by Rosendahl Design Group. It is Denmark’s largest manufacturer of glass in addition to being the oldest and most historic.

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