Heinrich Porzellan was founded by Franz Heinrich in 1896, when he built an oven for porcelain burning in his parents house in Selb, Bayern. Heinrich was a porcelain painter and at the beginning he bought the porcelain from the nearby porcelain factories and painted it himself, afterwhich he burnt it in his own oven.
From 1901 he had reached so far that he could produce porcelain himself. Heinrich soon developed into one of the most important porcelain producers in Germany. In the heyday of the factory half of the German porcelain came from the three factories; Hutschenreuther, Rosenthal and Heinrich. In the 1930's the factory had 500 employees and in the beginning of the 70's 800.
Heinrich Porzellan took over the porcelain factory Edelstein in the 1970's and therebey also the production of Edelstein's Christmas plates. The production of Edelstein was closed down completely and Heinrich's brand was used on the Christmas plates in stead. The change happened from 1978, which is why there are two different brands under the Christmas plates: Edelstein untill 1977 and Heinrich from 1978.
Heinrich Porzellan was the first factory to restart production after the Second World War and the company was sold to the English Slater-Walker Group. In 1974 the Bowater Group took over only to sell Heinrich to Villeroy & Boch in 1976. Heinrich is still owned by Villeroy & Boch, but the production of the Heinrich brand seems to be discontinued.
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