July 10, 2018 - Anyone who may be a connoisseur of fine china may recognize the brand “Royal Copenhagen”. It is high end tableware sold for a ridiculous price here.
There is a story though worth telling. Below you see a priceless porcelain set belonging to Christian IV. Europeans as early as the 16th century were mad about the stuff calling it ‘white gold’. The trouble is nobody knew how to make it. It was invented in China and try as they may, Europeans could not reverse engineer it. The set below came from the Dutch who had trading routes with China.
The necessary technique proved so bafflingly complex that no one could figure it out for several hundred years until Father Pere. He was a Jesuit Priest who in an act of espionage talked his way into Jingdezhen China- where the stuff came from- and sent back a detailed account of the recipe. After the theft, China soon lost it’s market and Europe became the capital of production.
I know- useless trivia but I really love this stuff.
Travel day tomorrow. We leave Copenhagen to spend a few days at Frederiksborg Castle. Then, on to Sweden.
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