1779-1979 Jubilee plate Royal Copenhagen, Adam Oehlenschlaeger

This 1979 Royal Copenhagen jubilee plate was designed by Sven Vestergaard and decorated under the glaze. This 1979 Royal Copenahen memorial plate was dedicated to one of Denmark's great poets, Adam Oehlenschläger, who was born in 1779. He is pictured against a background of Danish scenery such as he described in Denmark's national song, "There is a lovely land". Here you see the first verse of the Danish national anthem: There is a lovely land that proudly spreads her beeches beside the Baltic strand, a land that curves in hill and dale, that men have named Old Denmark; and this is Freay's hall. Adam Oehlenschläger had the same influence on the language and culture of Denmark as Goethe and Schiller had in Germany and Shelley, Keats, Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott in England. At 49, he was crowned Prince of Poets in Lund Cathedral in Sweden. This was in recognition of his linguistic mastery and as pioneer in The North of a new age of thought and ideals. History has revealed several examples of how one apparently insignificant incident can suddenly release latent forces which spread, rejecting the laboriously constructed conceptions of an earlier age and creating a new generation's ideals. Such an epoch-making event occurred in Danish and Scandinavian literature when Adam Oehlenschläger, at the age of 22, published his epic poem The golden Horns in 1802. At one inspired stroke, this work of art heralded the arrival in Scandinavia of the Romantic Era. A large number of poems, romances and plays was published in quick succession. His rendering of Aladdin from the Arabian Nights is remembered to this day. The preceding century's ideals based on reason were rejected just as in other parts of Europe, and were replaced by emotion. Pedantic retionalism was superseded by poetic imagination and lyrics inspired by nature made their appearance. Denmark's past also became a source of inspiration and Greek and Roman mythology had to give way to the mythology of the North. A new epoch manifested itself in this one man whose influence prevailed throughout the century. The low-relief motif on the plate is hand-cut and finished in Royal Copenhagen's distinctive blue colouring by the hand of skilled craftsmen. This is a limited issue.