Extensive Exhibition of Royal Copenhagen Porcelain


Summer and arts and crafts are what many people associate with Denmark. The extensive summer exhibition "The Light of Skagen" (Skagens lys) in the Felleshus / Pan Nordic Building supplements this picture with culture-historical aspects.

Royal Copenhagen, a venerable institution in the manufacture of exclusive porcelain and as such already part of the Danish cultural heritage, is showing its complete collection of dinnerware of the past 230 years. Included in the exhibition are royal museum pieces which have rarely been on view outside of Denmark. In addition, the exhibition offers visitors an exclusive first look at the newest dinnerware pattern from Royal Copenhagen, designed by one of Scandinavia’s foremost leading designers.

History and the present come together in the porcelain of Royal Copenhagen, which today is sold throughout the world. Royal Copenhagen porcelain has been crafted by hand since 1775. The first porcelain series of the company were described in Danish as "musselmalede" – referring to mussels – and which means "mussel-painted". The first hand-painted plates had sculptural fluted forms reminiscent of mussels.
Moreover, in the 18th century the world famous Royal Copenhagen waves symbol was designed, which still today appears on the porcelain and symbolises the "three Danish straits". The German-born Danish queen Juliane Marie (1729-96), designed this wave motif for Royal Copenhagen, the purveyor to the royal court.  

Mussels, wave lines and white gold gleaming in the light: These elements come together in the hand-painted porcelain in the "The Light of Skagen" summer exhibition in the Felleshus – just like the waves breaking off-shore at the city of Skagen at the northern tip of Denmark, between the Skagerrak and the Kattegat.