6o 
KERAMIC STUDIO 
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON— MR. REESEN-STENSTRUF 
COPENHAGEN PORCELAINS— BING & GRONDAHL 
HE name of Copenhagen evokes at first a recol- 
lection of the well known and charmingly dec- 
orated porcelains of the Royal Manufactory, 
which are familiar to our readers, as we have 
in two numbers given illustrations of these 
remarkable wares. However, it would be a 
great mistake to believe that the Royal Man- 
ufactory has the monopoly of the beautiful Danish porcelain 
or that the work done outside by private concerns is not worth 
mentioning. Among the keramics which at the last Paris 
Exposition have attracted the most attention, are the porce- 
lains of a group of Danish artists, known by the name of the 
old firm, Bing & Grondahl, founded in 1853. 
At that time the Royal Manufactory was in existence, 
but was not making very artistic wares, nor was it financially 
successful, and it occurred to a young potter named Grondahl 
that there was room for pottery work by private concerns. 
He secured the financial support of two brothers, M. H. & 
J. H. Bing and founded the firm of Bing & Grondahl. The 
first years were disappointing, but later under the direction 
of A. Jumel, the factory commenced the reproduction in bis- 
cuit of the famous sculptures of Thorwaldsen. An exhibition 
of these porcelain figures at the London Exposition of 1862 
met with an extraordinary success, and from that time dates 
the reputation of Bing & Grondahl. 
With Heine Hansen as Director, some very fine table sets 
with decorative motives of the Dutch Renaissance were pro- 
duced, one of the original sets being to-day in the collection 
of the King of Denmark. The Thorwaldsen reproductions 
were also continued, and in 1871 the statue of Hebe, in biscuit 
and life size, was bought by the South Kensington Museum. 
In 1886 and the following years, Prof. Krohn, now Direc- 
tor of the Copenhagen Museum of Decorative Arts, com- 
menced the decoration of porcelain with high fire colors, which 
considerably increased the reputation of the firm. Finally in 
the last few years the works have been placed under the 
direction of F. F. Willumsen, an architect by profession, who 
has shown marvelous gifts as a decorator and a potter, and has 
in a short time stamped the Bing & Grondahl wares as among 
the most original and artistic modern keramics. 
It will be noticed at a glance that far from being influ- 
enced by the works of their famous neighbors of the Royal 
Manufactory, the Bing & Grondahl artists are trying to escape 
that influence as much as possible. Although they occasion- 
ally use the high fire colors, the light blues and greys which 
resist the highest kiln temperatures, in most of their latest 
ORNAMENTS— MR. H. KOFOED 
PLAYING CHILDREN— MISS HAHN TKNSEX 
pieces the light shades are replaced by a metallic brown, an 
original and robust red, also a very fine black (oxide of iron is 
the basis of these brown and black glazes.) But it is not only 
in the colors used that the two products differ. The artists of 
the Royal Manufactory are painters, Bing & Grondahl are 
modelers and sculptors. Here the paste is everywhere incised, 
broken by open work decoration, thrown in powerful and 
striking shapes, and the color is only used to complete the 
decoration, while in the Royal Manufactory works the color 
is the whole decoration. The latter's wares give the impres- 
sion of charm and refinement, the Bing & Grondahl wares that 
of strength. Another difference is that artists of the Royal 
Manufactory are more and more tending to naturalistic paint- 
ing, while Bing & Grondahl remain highly conventional. No 
bolder and more striking conventionalization could be imag- 
ined than the wings on the cinerary urn in our illustration. 
