The Royal Copenhagen Memory Plates

Royal Copenhagen began producing Commemorative Plates (also called Memory Plates) in 1888, and continues the tradition today with the issue of their Millennium 2000 Plate.  In 1970, Royal Copenhagen published a book titled The Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Manufactory Plates (also called "The Gray Book") which pictured and described most of the Memory plates that had been issued; the numbers assigned in this book have become he standard identifier for the plates, and is shown in the first column below.   Most plates are pictured in this book:

Christmas Plates from Royal Copenagen and Bing & Grondahl:  An excellent new book (September, 2004) which pictures most of the Christmas plates, Mother's Day plates, Children's Day plates, and other commemorative plates by both companies. Also included are Royal Copenhagen annual mugs, the 2010 series Plaquettes, and the rare overglaze Royalty Silhouette Plaques (starting in 1906 with Christian IX). B&G series include Christmas Jubilee plates, Easter Plaques, Christmas in America, Windjammers, and B&G Centennial items. Plus Aluminia plates and Michelsen Christmas spoons.  Fully illustrated, with price guides, 9"x12" hardbound, $49.95 cover price, my price $35. An excellent resource for dealers and collectors alike; you NEED this book!

The size of the plate is shown in inches.  All of these plates were issued in Limited Editions; the number of plates issued is listed in the "L.E." column when known.  All of these plates are First Quality and in excellent condition -- no chips, cracks, or significant defects -- but all were hand produced, most of them in coal fired kilns, so the orginal manufacturing process created plates with more variation and anomalies than would be acceptable if produced using modern techniques.  The plates were individually inspected at the factory; plates with significant defects were marked as Second Quality by cutting a vertical scratch through the three wavy line trademark.

There were some error in sizes and edition sizes in the Gray Book; see ** and notes at bottom. 

Photos: You can click on any Description which appears in BLUE to see a photo of the plate. Otherwise, you can request photos of individual plates or buy the book.  The photos were not all taken under uniform lighting, so color varies more in the photos than in the plates.  All plates are traditional Copenhagen blue and white EXCEPT #26, 176, 178 and186 white are gray and white; #28 where the polar bear is off-white; and #30 which has a hint of yellow at the mouth of the volcano.

** Known errors/omissions in the Gray Book:  #3 was also issued in a 13" size, probably no more than 15 copies;  #16 & #17 were also issued with gold decoration, probably about 100 copies each;  #28 is 15 inches,  and only 150 copies; #71 is probably between 190 and 219 copies; #76 is probably closer to 100 copies;#126 (Small size) is 4 inches (10.5 cm); pictures of #183 and #184 reversed in the Gray Book; #284 is 14.5".  Any additional information would be appreciated.

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