Christmas plates from Bing & Grondahl
Bing & Grondahl released the first Christmas wall plate in 1895 and it was the genesis of several other famous Christmas plate series. However Bing & Grondahl Christmas plates will always be special, because their Christmas plate was the first in the world and the series is still continued with a new Christmas plate for the collector every year. The old blue plate remains a stable in the Danish porcelain production.
Below you will see how Bing & Grondahl plates can be combined with many other beautiful things. You can put them in a plate holder as done here or hang them on the wall.
Make your own theme
Here you see a Bing & Grondahl figurine of Hans Christian Andersen together with the Christmas plates from 2016 and 1954 from Bing & Grondahl, both plates show the house of our dear poet in Odense. The plates are merely drawn with a time difference of 62 years! - I like to make setups that connect in some way. - Here it is a Hans Christian Andersen Theme.
I could not help myself making a hunting theme as seen below..., but only your fantasy sets the limit as to what you can put together. It might be a theme of things made the year you were born, or a thing from each of the years that have ment something in your life. - Your birth, affirmation of baptism, wedding, the birth year of your children etc.
Christmas Plates by Bing & Grondahl
B&G's production of blue porcelain Christmas plates started in 1895, when the first Christmas plate was produced. Today, Bing & Grondahl Christmas plates are famous all over the world and thus an important representative of Denmark as the motif on the Christmas wall plates depict a wide range of our proud sights and attractions. In 1895 Harald Bing, one of the founders and owners of the Bing & Grondahl factory, got the idea to manufacture and sell a blue Christmas plate as a collector's article. He started to produced a new plate every year, the motif of the wall plate showed the Danish countryside, buildings etc.
In 1889, Bing & Grondahl participated in the World Exhibition in Paris, where the Heron Service got a wonderful welcome and part of it was immediately bought by museums and private collectors around the world. The first Christmas plate was as described above produced in 1895 and this plate was designed by F.A. Hallin, who was also the artist of the Heron Service. The beautiful blue plate was also warmly welcomed by collectors everywhere. This was the beginning of a fantastic story about the production of blue porcelain and the worldwide collection mania of plates in general.
The first blue Christmas wall plate, "Behind the frozen window" was only produced in a very small number and therefore it is highly sought after and difficult to find. This also applies to others of the early years though smaller in scale. Also plates produced during the second World War when there was a shortage of raw materials for the production of Christmas plates are often hard to come by.
B&G Christmas plates depict many beautiful events and the atmosphere we associate with Christmas. Each landscape motif is dressed in the white winter coat, which we experience almost every winter in Denmark. Several of B&G blue Christmas wall plates also depict Danish churches, where many people gather on Christmas Eve. Although the churches in Denmark today are far from being used to the same extent as they did in the past. The church is still a beloved gathering place for the family on Christmas Eve. It is in the church that many families start their Christmas Eve and really let the peace settle in, while we listen to the sound of the beautiful Christmas songs accompanied by wonderful organ music.
A Bing & Grondahl old blue Christmas plate is a great gift for Christmas as it set a wonderful atmosphere to a room. It is also not just for hanging on the wall, if you collect many plates you can also use it as a Christmas service that makes a wonderful setting for Christmas tea and coffee. The plates gives and aura of that old Christmas we all long for withe frost on the windows, snowy landscape and a well decorated home and Christmas tree. Everything needed for a merry Christmas rounded of with the Christmas cake on your blue plate with a lovely motif under the cake. How could a setting for Christmas Eve be better? Especially children will love the many motifs of children playing in the snow and long for building snowmen and having snow fights themselves. The plates could thus also be gifts to an old friend commemorating the Christmas days of old, when you were playing in the snow.
Christmas is a family celebration and at this time we try to remember to be there for each other. The same care applies to animals. Many wild animals might have difficulty finding food, when the ground is covered with snow and hard frost. Bing & Grondahl has portrayed both the forest's wildlife and people's pets on several of their blue Christmas wall plates, where the animals are enjoying the extra care. The Bing & Grondahl Christmas plate from 1920 shows two hares in the forest in search of grain on the snowy ground. Likewise the B&G Christmas plate from 1921 depicts two doves in the process of looking for food. The known Danish songwriter Peter Faber's Christmas song "What a tremendous hustle and bustle" tells of the watchdog, which will get an extra meal because of Christmas. This scenario Bing & Grondahl set on the Christmas wall plate from 1915 and the Christmas wall plate from 1941 depicts two horses in the lovely, warm stable enjoying their extra large portion of hay.
Not all families can gather at Christmas because of work and service abroad. Denmark is a proud maritime nation and have always had many ships sailing the seas at Christmas. Therefore, there are also several Bing and Grondahl Christmas wall plates with motifs of ships like the Royal Yacht at Greenland and the motor vessel M / S Jens Bang.
Christmas is the festival of hearts - a term we hear again and again. Cosyness and togetherness have also been the inspiration for many of the blue Christmas plates by Bing & Grondahl. Several of B&G Christmas plates show children and adults in familiar situations. We see children skating, a crowd of children putting the finishing touches on their snowman, families decorating the Christmas tree and expectant children waiting for Santa.
As mentioned below, in addition to the wellknown BG Christmas plates, B&G also produced the Large B&G Jubile Christmas Plates 23 cm, as well as Bing & Grondahl Santa Claus Plates 20 cm, Bing & Grondahl The Snow Fairy Plates 19 cm, and the beautiful large Annual Dishes Ø 33cm 1909-1912
Remember that you can use B&G Christmas plates to eat from
The Chistmas plates are painted under the glazing, so you can use them as dinner plates to serve food and give you table a tiny spark of Christmas. Below you can see a Christmas plate used for serving Danish rye bread with herring.
The first Christmas plate in the world was made by Bing & Grondahl in 1985
On a cold Decembers morning in 1895, we were told, mr. Harald Bing, director of the Danish porcelain house of Bing and Grondahl, ordered his astonished workers to destroy the mold of the small blue-and-white plate the company had produced to commemorate the Christmas holiday.
The plate was Behind the Frozen window, and it became the first known limited edition collector´s plate and the cornerstone of what is now the world´s most actively traded form of art.
By thus limiting the plate´s supply, Mr. Bing established the essential condition for the extraordinary collector´s plate marked we know today.
Limited-edition old blue plates are now bought and sold all over the world by millions of collectors who are seeking not only rare old plates like Behind the Frozen Window, but also current issues from many makers in many counties. In addition to the thrill of market speculation, these collectors take a special pleasure in owning these scarce objects in the tradition of the connoisseurs who collected art in the medium of plates in earlier times.
Facts about the B&G Christmas plates:
When was the first B&G Christmas plate issued?
The first B&G Christmas plate was issued in 1895 and was the first Christmas plate in the world.
Which is the most valuable B&G Christmas plate?
The most valuable B&G Christmas plate is also the oldest plate from 1895. Other than this all the years prior to 1900 are valuable.
Who designed the first B&G Christmas plate?
The first Christmas plate ever was designed by Frederik August Hallin.
Can you eat from B&G Christmas plates?
Yes, all B&G Christmas plates can be used to eat from. The paint used was always the same as used for the dinnerware.
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