During the ten years subsequent to the opening of the retail
establishment in Copenhagen, the output of the factory must have been
very extensive. It is interesting to find that in 1790 the Custom House
regulations relative to the subject are as follows: "Foreign china is
prohibited, because the manufactory at Copenhagen, which is at the
charge of the State, has been of late productive enough to supply
the two kingdoms with an article of luxury, more than of necessity.
Painted earthenware is likewise prohibited, from its resemblance to
china being so great that many may be induced to purchase it instead of
a more valuable article; but plain earthenware, being more generally
necessary, is allowed, as is also the porcelain brought over by the
East India ships belonging to the Asiatic Company."
=A Contemporary Account of the Factory.=--The testimony of two foreign
critics who visited the factory in 1790 is a valuable record, as
they produced authoritative statistical volumes on Northern Europe.
Their opinion assists the modern student in forming an estimate of
the relative value of the Royal Copenhagen porcelain as compared with
that of the great contemporary factories, especially Meissen. In _Les
Voyages de deux François dans le Nord de l'Europe_ (the Chevalier Louis
de Boisgelin and the Comte Alfonse de Fortia), published by the latter,
the trade and manufactures of Denmark receive full treatment.
We quote from the English edition, _Travels through Denmark and
Sweden: to which is prefixed a Journal of a Voyage down the Elbe from
Dresden to Hamburgh, including a compendious historical account of
the Hanseatic League, by Louis de Boisgelin, Knight of Malta, with
views from drawings taken on the spot by Dr. Charles Parry_. This was
published in two quarto volumes in 1810. The author states that the
former volume written by his fellow-traveller is so rare that it is
hardly possible to procure a copy "either of the original edition or of
the counterfeit one produced in Germany."
The details in regard to the factory as it then existed are very
interesting. There were three large and two small ovens; one of these
was the first employed by Müller when he produced his hard porcelain.
The ovens were of brick. A firing lasted eighteen hours. It took
four days to cool. "These ovens are capable of firing eight complete
services at once, whereas those of Saxony cannot take in more than
three. The fire here is so well distributed that in many of the
firings of fine porcelain the loss sustained is scarcely more than ten
rix-dollars."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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