HXRAMIC STUDIO 
Miss J. Meyer MissA.Smidth Miss.T. Mey 
Mr. G. Heilmakn 
1 Jin. C. K. U 
?, Mu. C. Mo 
G. Rods. 
M. Hobst. 
ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN 
|«^Y courtesy of Mr. Dalgas of the Royal Copenhagen Manufac- 
tory, we have the great pleasure of offering to our readers 
some selected illustrations of the latest work done by the 
Danish artists. Many more photographs were sent to us. 
Lack of room prevents us from reproducing them all in this 
number, but our readers may be sure that we will give them 
later on, as every piece is interesting and suggestive, a lesson 
to the decorator. So much has been said in regard to Copenhagen porcelain, 
its beauty of texture, the charm, refinement and infinite variety of its decora- 
tion, that it is unnecessary to repeat that this manufactory occupies to-day 
the foremost rank among the artistic potteries of the world. At the Paris 
Exposition, it was honored with two grand prix and two gold medals, and 
in the jury's classification of the relative value of different factories, was 
placed before all others, Sevres alone excepted. 
For the history of the manufactory and the processes of fabrication and 
decoration, we refer to our article in issue of May, 1900. Nothing is appar- 
ently simpler than these porcelains. A little grey, blue and green, and some- 
times traces of a soft faded red ; that is all, but these few colors are used with 
such a thorough understanding of decoration, such a wonderful technique, 
that any one familiar with the difficulties of handling underglaze colors fired 
at very high temperatures, wonders at the perfection of the work and minute 
precision of details. 
From an artistic point of view, it is probably an advantage that so few 
colors will stand the high firing of porcelain, as it gives the pieces and the 
decoration the mark of a very refined art. The principle which has always 
guided the Danish artists and explains their phenomenal success is that the 
artist must conform the decoration to the material which he uses, so that the 
decoration and material must make one. As Mr. Dalgas expresses it in his 
letter to us, porcelain is the refined, beautiful female keramic body, which 
suffers no raw or violent treatment, as its peculiarities are grace and distinc- 
tion, and it is certain that the use of these few shades adds greatly to the 
refined charm of the whole. 
Quite different are the other keramic products, and if we should follow 
the suggestion of the Copenhagen artists to classify them by sexes, we would 
have as the extreme opposite of porcelain, the keramic stoneware (gres 
of the French), so much used now by European potters, the body of robust 
shapes, powerful modeling and intense coloring, the true male keramic body, 
whether it is used in the making of vases or in architectural decoration. 
Between porcelain and^rt'i- stand the sexless faience, the bodies of soft clays 
and lighter firing, with their unlimited possibilities of decoration. We find 
them as delicate and refined as porcelain in Rookwood, sober and dignified in 
shape and color in Grueby, a magnificent display of colors in the single color 
pieces of the old Chinese, a charming combination of artistic design and color 
in the old European faiences, Delft, Rouen, Nevers and others. 
