Chats on Royal Copenhagen Porcelain

In 18th-century Europe, porcelain was gold. The secret of true hard-paste porcelain had traveled from China to Meissen, and every kingdom wanted its own factory. Denmark's answer was Royal Copenhagen, born from royal ambition and decades of artistic experimentation. Arthur Hayden, writing in 1918, traces this remarkable story from the factory's struggling early years under King Frederik V through its triumphant emergence as one of Europe's most distinctive porcelain houses. He reveals the forgotten craftsmen who finally cracked the formula, the French artists who brought continental elegance, and the gradual emergence of a genuinely Danish style rooted in the nation's own flora, light, and literary traditions. The book stands as both a collector's guide and a thoughtful meditation on how nations express themselves through craft. For anyone who has ever held a piece of Copenhagen porcelain and wondered at its pale glow, Hayden offers the stories behind that glow.