Bing & Grøndahl

Bing & Grøndahl began in 1853 as a partnership between a sculptor and two merchants: Frederik Vilhelm Grøndahl, who had trained as a figure modeller, and the brothers Meyer Herman Bing and Jacob Herman Bing. Their porcelain factory on Vesterbrogade in Copenhagen became one of Denmark's two major porcelain manufacturers, and for more than a century it competed directly with the Royal Porcelain Factory. Much of the Bing & Grøndahl porcelain that collectors look for today, from tableware and figurines to Christmas plates and vases, dates from the 1890s to the 1970s.

The early output was modest in scope. The factory made unglazed biscuit figures reproducing the neoclassical sculptures of Bertel Thorvaldsen, together with simple household ware. Grøndahl died in 1856, only three years after the start, and the Bing family carried the business forward. Complete dinner services entered the range around 1860, and in 1895 the firm became a limited company.

The real turning point came in the mid-1880s, when the artist Pietro Krohn took over artistic direction. Inspired by Japanese art, he designed the Heron service, shown in Copenhagen in 1888 and praised at the Paris World Exhibition of 1889. It proved that underglaze blue, until then a humble decoration, could carry a luxury service. Fanny Garde's Seagull service of 1892 followed, with white gulls on a blue ground; by the mid-20th century it was laid on tables in so many Danish homes that it was called the national service. The painter and sculptor J.F. Willumsen then led the art department from 1897 to 1900.

In 1895 Bing & Grøndahl issued what is regarded as the world's first Christmas plate, designed by Frans August Hallin and decorated in cobalt blue on white. A new plate has appeared every year since, and the series became one of the most widely collected lines of Danish porcelain. Figurines with soft underglaze painting of children, animals and everyday scenes were another speciality of the house.

Over the decades the factory worked with a long list of Danish artists, among them Effie Hegermann-Lindencrone, Hans Tegner, Kai Nielsen, Jean René Gauguin, Ebbe Sadolin, Erik Magnussen and Henning Koppel. Gertrud Vasegaard's tea service of 1956, made at Bing & Grøndahl, was later chosen for the Danish Culture Canon, a sign of how closely the factory followed modern Danish design.

Bing & Grøndahl merged with Royal Copenhagen in 1987, and its tableware and Christmas plates have since been produced under the Royal Copenhagen name, which is now part of the Finnish Fiskars group. The former factory buildings on Vesterbrogade have been converted into offices. For collectors, the three-tower factory mark is the key identifier: its wording and colour changed several times, so the mark, together with the model number printed beside it, helps place a piece in its period.