(July 2015)
In Lidköping by Vänern we had lunch at the Rörstrand Porcelain Museum. Even if our table in their café was not laid out as elegantly as this one in the museum, it was still a very nice place to have lunch.
Rörstrand is one of the most famous Swedish porcelain manufacturers; initially founded in Stockholm; in the 1930’s, they moved to Lidköping. Nowadays the company has been taken over by Finnish Iittala, production has been moved abroad and the factory in Lidköping closed down. But the museum is still there to enjoy – and entrance is free.
Many of Rörstrand’s classic tableware patterns are very well known in Sweden. Some of them have a long history, going back 100 years or more; and some patterns taken out of production for a while have proved so popular that they were reintroduced again later.
One of those is ‘Green Anna’, first created around the turn of the century 1900. It was out of production between 1943-1966; but then reintroduced on the market again until 2002. I myself chose this series to collect when I first moved away from home to live on my own in the mid 1970’s. I have dinner plates, soup plates, and side plates in this pattern, and also the teacups which you can see here. The plates I’m still using almost daily. The teacups are not my favourite design to hold and drink from though, so they don’t get used very often now (as I have others that I prefer).
My paternal grandmother’s everyday tableware (she got married in 1930, so probably bought around then) was another Rörstrand design, Bengali Blue (which I did not see in the museum).
When we cleared out my parents’ house, I found the soup plates from this series to still be in good condition (obviously not having been used much, compared to the flat ones that were used all the time and got well worn and cracked over the years). So I kept those – and I’m glad I did. While I find them rather too flat for soup (my Green Anna ones are better for that purpose– deeper and more bowl-shaped), these are just perfect for my “TV dinners” (salad etc).
They also match my grandmother’s teacups rather well…
But the teacups and saucers are of a different make, and from England!
Linking to Mosaic Monday
12 comments:
Interesting to see all the porcelain and such an array of dishes. Yours are very pretty-its nice to have dishes with a history to them.
my mother loved porcelain figures, she would love this museum. that table is gorgeous. and i would like to eat there even on another table.
Interesting post. Rörstrand to you is like Arabia to us Finns. I like the green pattern of your plates.
Monica, I love the photos from the museum especially the plates on the wall and the table set in blue and white.. Thanks for sharing. Sylvia D.
Such a beautiful display of porcelain!
This was interesting; I love it when the things we use daily have a history. My plates for daily use are from my maternal grandparents; they were married in 1933 and bought their cream-coloured porcelain with the gold rim back then.
Here in Ludwigsburg, we used to have our own porcelain manufactury. Sadly, they had to close down last year after more than 250 years.
I enjoyed the display of plates more than the very ornate vases and such :)
Riitta, Arabia is well-known over here too. As is Iittala for glass! I got some Moomin Arabia tea mugs last year :)
I did not know that about Ludwigsburg. Do you have any locally produced items yourself? I agree that it's nice to have things with a history. I enjoy having some things inherited from my parents and grandparents, mixed with other things that were my own choice. - There were two different sets of white goldrimmed tableware from both my grandmothers as well (only used when they had guests for dinner). But my cupboards are full and I have no table for a big dinner parties and probably never will. One set was taken care of by my aunt but the other went with the rest of the stuff to the antiques dealer who cleared the house for us at the end. Hopefully sold on to someone who will appreciate it! :)
There are no Ludwigsburg pieces in my cupboards, but my Mum has quite a nice collection. I think you have just given me an idea for a blog post :-)
Lovely cups!
Even if I don't happen to like the design I always enjoy seeing porcelain and pottery. Apart from the fact that it's part of all our everyday lives the fact that I used to produce pottery gives me an added interest.
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