Dating Royal Copenhagen - marking system for
figurines and collectibles
1. Dating by backstamp and painter's number before 1935
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Pre-1900 | 1894-1900 | Pre-1923 mark with Painter's number | 1924-1934 with Painter's number |
2. Dating by painter's number or initials
 |
 |
 |
| Painter's number 1893 -1928 (193). | Painter's initials lower case till about 1950 (ffx) with the addition of "x" simply a form of fecit = painted by | Painter's initials upper-case letters (a few appears before 1950) until present |
In the Collector's Guide by Caroline & Nick Pope you will find a list of the known painters with number-signature and their working period at Royal Copenhagen. Also the data of the designing artist will be an important indication of possible age.
3. Dating by back stamp 1935 - 2002 Royal Copenhagen Denmark
 |
Bar above a letter in Royal or Copenhagen |  |
Bar below a letter in Royal, Denmark or Copenhagen |  |
A bar above two letters in Royal |
| R | 1935 | R | 1950 | RO | 1985-1991 |
| O | 1936 | O | 1951 | RY | 1992-1999 |
| Y | 1937 | Y | 1952 | RA | 1999-2004 |
| A | 1938 | A | 1953 | ||
| L | 1939 | L | 1954 | ||
| C | 1940 | D | 1955 | ||
| O | 1941 | E | 1956 | ||
| P | 1942 | N | 1957 | ||
| E | 1943 | M | 1958 | ||
| N | 1944 | A | 1959 | ||
| H | 1945 | R | 1960 | ||
| A | 1946 | K | 1961 | ||
| G | 1947 | C | 1962 | ||
| E | 1948 | O | 1963 | ||
| N | 1959 | P | 1964 | ||
| E | 1965 | ||||
| N | 1966 | ||||
| H | 1967 | ||||
| A | 1968 | ||||
| G | 1969-1974 | ||||
| E | 1975-1979 | ||||
| N | 1980-1984 |
4. Dating by back stamp DENMARK with crown or 3 wavy lines
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||
| A bar above a letter in Denmark | A bar below a letter in Denmark | A (u) above a letter in Denmark | A (u) below a letter in Denmark | A (slash) above a letter in Denmark | A (slash) below a letter in Denmark | ||||||
| D | 1935 | D | 1942 | D | 1949 | D | 1956 | D | 1963 | D | 75/79 |
| E | 1936 | E | 1943 | K | 1950 | K | 1957 | K | 1964 | K | 80/84 |
| N | 1937 | N | 1944 | E | 1951 | E | 1958 | E | 1965 | E | 85/89 |
| M | 1938 | M | 1945 | R | 1952 | R | 1959 | R | 1966 | R | 90/94 |
| A | 1939 | A | 1946 | N | 1953 | N | 1960 | N | 1967 | N | 95/99 |
| R | 1940 | R | 1947 | A | 1954 | A | 1961 | A | 1968 | A | 00/04 |
| K | 1941 | K | 1948 | M | 1955 | M | 1962 | M | 69/74 | M | |
5. Signatures
The artist have different ways of signing their works of modeling or decoration:
| Initial of artist incised under the base - on production pieces | Full signature by artist - on unique or limited pieces | Monogram by artist - on unique or limited pieces | Signature on the figurine - on production pieces | Monogram on the figurine - on production pieces |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
6. Juliane Marie mark
Over glaze and some white pieces produced from 1900 and onward are stamped with the Juliane Marie Mark
| Juliane Marie mark and Denmark mark on a Blanc de Chine | Juliane Marie Mark overglaze hand painted | Juliane Marie Crown on overglaze handpainted | Inscriptions under the base of overglaze | Interesting signatures - I will be very interested in photos like below | Juliane Marie mark on the side of the figurine |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
7. Dating overglaze
| A (.) mark below a letter in Denmark | A mark over a letter in Denmark | A (.) below a letter in Copenhagen | A mark (.) over a letter in Copenhagen | A mark for Royal | |||||
| K | 1935 | K | 1942 | N | 1949 | N | 1959 | L | 69/73 |
| R | 1936 | R | 1943 | E | 1950 | E | 1960 | A | 74/78 |
| A | 1937 | A | 1944 | G | 1951 | G | 1961 | Y | 79/83 |
| M | 1938 | M | 1945 | A | 1952 | A | 1962 | O | 84/88 |
| N | 1939 | N | 1946 | H | 1953 | H | 1963 | R | 89/93 |
| E | 1940 | E | 1947 | N | 1954 | N | 1964 | ||
| D | 1941 | D | 1948 | E | 1955 | E | 1965 | ||
| P | 1956 | P | 1966 | ||||||
| O | 1957 | 0 | 1967 | ||||||
| C | 1958 | C | 1968 | ||||||
8. Color variations on figurines.
Pieces which are produced in different color variations have a fractional number
| Color code 0 for predominantly white pieces | Color code 1 for Blue Fluted ? | Color code 1025 for cats | Color code 1066 for ? | Color code 1238 for "brown" dogs |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Color code 1452 for gray patches on white | Color code 1453 Orange - Light brown | Color Code 1708 for "brindle" on certain dogs | Grey-brown colors
Color codes 946 & 947 for foxes |
Some pieces were privately painted by the painters for themselves |
 |
 |
 |
1233 for bears 1252 for rabbits 1454 for monkeys. |
 |
9. Aluminia Faience
| Aluminia Faience 1903 -1969 - you have the beehive - a capital A with the three wavy lines | Aluminia became Royal Copenhagen faience from 1969 - click here to learn more |
Aluminia Faience 1929-1950 on a crackled porcelain dog |
Signatures on Aluminia and Royal Copenhagen faiences | Artist list Copenhagen porcelain and art pottery from 1890s and forward |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Aluminia Faience factory date its history to the year 1862 founded by August Schiøttt (1834 - 1863). In 1868 Philip Schou took over the factory and moved the production to Frederiksberg. In 1882 he bought the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory and the two companies merged to one. The production of faience lived its own quite life in the shadow of the blooming interest for industrial production of porcelain at Royal Copenhagen. But the period from 1901 - 1928 became a new period of success under the artistic input from Chr. Joachim (1870-1943) and Harald Slott-Møller (1864-1937). They crated the important works of Danish Skonvirke in the coloristic Art faience of Aluminia. Later Nils Thorsson took the manufactory into the new and final era in the period 1928-1969 where it changed name to Royal Copenhagen Faience.
10. Marking on Royal Copenhagen dinnerware and Flora Danica
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Over the line you have the number of decoration - here #10 for Blue Flower | Under the line you have the item or model # - here 1623 on a Blue Flower Curved Dinner plate | On the same model and form you can have different decorations - here Frijsenborg # 910 | In the Blue Flower Curved pattern you have item numbers from 1500 - 2000 | The Blue Flower Braided pattern you find numbers from 8000-8499 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The Blue Flower Angular have numbers from 8500 and forward | You will find variations and gift item which will not follow the rules - candlesticks above have number 3303 | The Blue Fluted pattern # 1 was given the decoration number #1 because it was the first and oldest | From 1893 the numbering system was introduced. Blue Fluted plain or ribbed # 1 items were given numbers from 1-499 and 2000 forward | Blue fluted half lace items were given numbers from 500 - 999 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Blue fluted full lace items had numbers from 1000 an onward | Also here you will find variations - like more heavy hotel ware | Green fluted marked 1 A | And items before 1893 is marked with antique Royal Copenhagen markings | In the 1980s a new number system was introduced - now a cup of same size and use has the same number in different patterns - and the pattern number is no longer indicated |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| From the late 19th century the Flora Danica were marked with the name of the Latin flower in black; the Royal Copenhagen hallmark and the pattern and form number | Antique Flora Danica ca. 1860-1880 | The painters of Flora Danica, where aloud to paint a few items every year they for themselves. These are marked with the painters name /initials and a date - the name of the flower is always handwritten or not there. Quality vary from not so good to superb. | The history of special orders are long - some with special motives; other's just marked on the back like above | A series of Japanese flowers were painted on a special form |
 |
 |
 |
 |
To get an overview of some of the most seen Royal Copenhagen dinnerware patterns - please click here
11. Second quality
 |
|
"Errare humanum est" | |
| Pieces which do not meet the factory's demands for perfection are marked as "seconds". This was done by scratching through the 3 wavy blue lines with a diamond cutter. These pieces were sold with a 25-30% discount at the factory shop. | Pontil marks - Some larger pieces required additional support during firing, resulting in small circular marks beneath the supported area. Not really a reason to call it a 2nd. | Larger pieces with firing cracks were also sold as 2nd or 3rd quality instead of being destroyed | It is said that in the 1920-30's the factory used to let factory workers buy 3rds & 4ths for very little money ...and that resulted in "a lot" of 3rds & 4ths being made, many of them having nothing wrong with them. |
11. References
| Robert Heritage: Royal Copenhagen Porcelain - Animals & Figurines. Schiffer Books 1997 |
| Caroline & Nick Pope: Collector's Guide to Royal Copenhagen Porcelain. Schiffer books 2001: |
| Mikkelsen, Leif Berring. Aluminia Fajance 1862-1969. Sesam 200 (Danish) |
| S.E.Vingedal: Porslinsmärken, Forum 1982 (Swedish) |
12. A note from Jamiri.dk
This is a dynamic site - constantly under development - please mail your questions, corrections and suggestion - they will be taken seriously. I also welcome any photos of signatures or examples.
Do you like what you see at these pages? In the future we would like to be able to create a site that will be an inspiration to collectors all over the world. We would like to make more theme pages based on artists or motives. Also we intend to generate and translate more information about Danish Porcelain Artists, markings, dating and the different china patterns. Please consider supporting this project by sponsoring a few minutes work by contributing a small donating.Jan Ringsmose, 2009
Tilpasset søgning
|
Custom Search
|
Artist list Copenhagen porcelain
Old & contemporary prints, etchings and engravings
Bing & Grondahl Town plates -Danish Civic Heraldry
Dealer signs and commercial plates and other items
Bing & Grondahl 8-edged Commemorative Plates
Bing & Grondahl Bird figurines
Bing & Grondahl Backstamps or factory marks 1853 to 2003.
Children's day Børnehjælpsdagen Royal Copenhagen 1910 - 1940
Bing & Grondahl Easter Plates 1910 -1935
Elephant - Danish Porcelain, Ceramic and Stoneware
Works of Peter Ilsted for sale
List of Peter Ilsted Mezzotints
Porcelain Apes, Monkey - Primates B&G. Dahl Jensen and Royal Copenhagen
Royal Copenhagen 2010 Plaquette Series #1
Royal Copenhagen 2010 Plaquette Series #2
Leder De efter noget bestemt. Se vores aktuelle beholdning i
feltet herunder:
