158 hours

Bing & Grøndahl artists Fanny Garde (1855-1928) and Effie Hegermann-Lindencrone (1860-1945) considered it important to retain as much control as possible, from the beginning to the end of the production process. Although the basic form of this large vase was cast – not thrown on a wheel – Hegermann-Lindencroneapplied the carved contours and decorations in slip relief herself immediately afterwards. A painstaking job, but with a magnificent effect. The vertical ‘columns’ of hollyhocks take on a tangible plasticity, not only physically but also for the eye.

After the first ‘biscuit’ firing, the colours were applied by hand. The flowers and leaves of the hollyhocks were rendered in underglaze painting, while the fields in between were filled with an iron oxide glaze that turns oxblood red in the kiln. Garde and Hegermann-Lindencronefrequently employed the contrast between a glossy underglaze painting and a matt metal oxide. The knowledge for this came from Jens Ferdinand Willumsen (1863-1958) who, following the successful experiments of Valdemar Engelhardt at Royal Copenhagen, focused on the development of metallic glazes towards the turn of the century.

Several of Garde’s and Hegermann-Lindencrone’s workbooks have survived, providing an insight into how labour-intensive and precarious the process of creating these kinds of products must have been. For example, we read that this vase with model number 1000, made in March 1905, should originally have had a blue foot, but that this was ultimately unsuccessful due to unwanted presence of smoke in the kiln. This must have been frustrating for the perfectionist Hegermann-Lindencrone, especially given that she spent no fewer than 158 hours on this vase!