Rorstrand Polka

We recently found this Rörstrand Polka dish. Love that the design is like looking down on this group's dinner table.

Bargain Polka

I love it when eBay sellers don't do their homework!  This was posted as "Rorffrand" and I think I got a deal.  The pattern is Polka.  The designer is Carl Harry Stålhane.

Fall into Winter

The end of the year certainly has a lot going on!  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, the mundane parts of life seem to have taken over.  I'm also starting to wonder if my focus here on ceramics is too limiting, and if that's why my updates here have been so sparse of late.  As I look around my house, I realize there are Scandinavian influences everywhere - so, I think in the new year I'm going to start sharing a little bit more than just ceramics (well, I'm going to make it official...I've already had a few non-pottery posts).  

About these pictures:  We used a few different Dansk candleholders for the first time - the brass candlesticks in early December, and the taper crown for Christmas dinner.  

We also completed our collection of Lisa Larson Advent candleholders.  The marks on the bases are not all the same:  the boys have the original Gustavsberg marks, but the girls are marked Rörstrand.  

Christmas Eve dinner was at my parents' house on their lovely Porsgrund Hearts and Pines.

Dinner

One of my cousins from Norway has been visiting for the last 3 weeks, and we had her and my parents over for dinner on Sunday.  She brought my three fun plates (Stavangerflint and Figgjo) that I'll post soon.

We used our Heath Ceramics dishes the Dansk Fjord silverware and Iittala wine glasses - three different countries, but they all go really well together.  For dessert we bought some little tarts from Patisserie 46 and served them on our Millesgården plates by Rörstrand.

Rörstrand Picknick

We just found this Rörstrand Picknick dish at a local thrift store!  I believe it was designed by Marianne Westman, and produced between 1960 and 1970.

One of our kitchen shelves with a Nittsjö bird, Rolf Berg tomte, and a Rörstrand covered pot.  Tomorrow the tree is coming down, really.  We got these two flag ornaments this year - the Norwegian flag for my heritage, and the Italian flag for my partner.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  We had a nice dinner of crab cakes and agurksalat (cucumber salad) with a bottle of Duval-Leroy Blanc de Chardonnay 1998 (the same year my partner and I met!).  The glasses are from the Aarne line by Iittala.

And for dessert we had some fantastic nibblies from a French bakery near us, with some Port and espresso.

I noticed that the Millesgården plates by Rörstrand have a different mark on the bottom than the cups and saucers - they also say "Diamant."  The color of the porcelain was also slightly yellower in the plates.  Hmm.

Dessert with Iittala and Rörstrand

Iittala espresso cup in the Ego pattern, aquavit in an Iittala Ultima Thule cordial glass, and a fantastic dessert from our local pastry shop on a Rörstrand Millesgården plate.

Rörstrand Casserole

My cousin Nancy gave me this great Rörstrand casserole.  I think the pattern name is Fiesta Fresta (thanks commenter!), although the mark is smudged on the base.  If anyone knows for sure, a comment would be great.

Rörstrand Bears - Friday Fun

Another Swedish bear (or two), this one a bit finer quality.  I gave this to my partner for Christmas a few years ago, but then lost track of its information, so all I knew was that it was made by Rörstrand.  The base has the artist's initials (KG), but search engines only recognize that as "kilograms!"  I finally had success recently and found out KG stands for Karl Grössl, who was at Rörstrand for only a few years - 1936 to 1939, which makes these much older than I thought.

I particularly like the glaze on this - the brown has nice variations in color, and thinner parts let the white porcelain show through in places, while other parts have big drips of glaze.  The glaze is quite smooth, too.

This originally may have been attached to a small wooden base.

 Rawr!

Millesgården by Rörstrand

We bought a set of these Rörstrand cups/saucers and dessert plates at the Millesgården museum in Stockholm during our trip there in 2003.  The design was exclusive to the museum shop, and features a grape motif that was either designed by Carl Milles, or based on one of his designs.

Here is the base of the cup with the Rörstrand logo and "Millesgården."

Gunnar Nylund Dish by Rörstrand

This small dish is our first piece of Gunnar Nylund, found today at a local antique shop (along with several other Scandinavian pieces of ceramics). It's surprisingly heavy and thick-walled, and I love the organic glaze, simple leaf design, and arrowhead shape.

Etched by hand on the bottom are the Rörstrand "R" with three crowns, the artist's initials (GN), Sweden, and the shape number (either ASZ or A5Z).