Asian-Style Dish, Hjorth Pottery (Denmark), 1920’s

Here’s a little Danish stoneware dish pretending to be Asian! It has a lovely Asian-style tree in the middle and is also adorned with one of the most decorative patterns, the Greek key. The dish was made at the Hjorth Pottery on the island of Bornholm, presumably in the 1920's, most likely designed by Thora Hjorth (1875-1970) who was inspired by Asian pottery at the time. The dish is covered with what is usually referred to as 'marmorglasur' ('marble glaze'), a greyish white glaze resembling marble and developed at Hjorth in the late 1920's. This glaze is unique to the Hjorth Pottery. Moreover, it is decorated with a copper glaze which turns out either red or green during firing - if you look closely (enlarging the pictures) you can see that the red contains traces of green too.

The most well-known type of pottery from the Hjorth Pottery is the grey-brown unglazed pottery - here is an example in a style typical for Skønvirke, the Danish interpretation of Art Nouveau: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/110287-unglazed-l-hjorth-vase-ca-1920

Diameter 16 cm; height 3.8 cm