Christian Thomsen (1860-1921)
Christian Thomsen, a woodcarver by training, was taken on as a modeller at The Royal Copenhagen. Porcelain Manufactory in 1898, and worked here until his death in 1921.

At the time of his joining the staff, the factory was going through a busy and happy period, which was to continue well into this century. The underglaze-decorated porcelain by Arnold Krog, the factory's art director, which had triumphed at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889, had sparked off this period of regeneration. This success triggered off a whole new artistic renaissance which was to affect every aspect of the factory's porcelain production, including the production of figures, the field in which Christian Thomsen was to play a prominent role.

Christian Thomsen was a very hard-working artist. Besides figures and vases he designed and carved 36 different motifs for Christmas and commemorative plates and reconstructed a number of pre-1800 designs, the original moulds of which had been last.

Further he found time to design book covers and bindings for the Copenhagen publisher Gyldendal. During the period 1906-1919, he regularly exhibited his figurines (in plaster) and his landscape drawings and sketches at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen . Christian Thomsen achieved recognition abroad as well, winning a silver med al in Milan in 1908 and a gold medal in Brussels in 1910. His work was also warmly reviewed in contemporary German and English art journals.

Royal Copenhagen , officially the Royal Porcelain Factory ( Danish : Den kongelige Porcenlæfabrik ) is a manufacturer of porcelain products and was founded in Copenhagen May 1 , 1775 under the protection of Queen Juliane Marie . It recognised by its factory mark, the three wavy lines above each other, symbolising Denmark 's three straits: Oresund , the Great Belt and the Little Belt . [1]

In recent years, Royal Copenhagen acquired Georg Jensen in 1972 , incorporated with Holmegaard Glasværk in 1985 , and finally Bing & Grøndahl in 1987 . Today, Royal Copenhagen is a part of a group of Scandinavian companies, Royal Scandinavia , together with Georg Jensen, and is owned by the Danish private equity fund, Axcel . Following Axcel's acquisition of Royal Scandinavia, Holmegaard Glasværk was sold in a MBO and a controlling interest in the Swedish glass works Orrefors Kosta Boda was sold to New Wave Group.

2007
Georg Jensen and Royal Copenhagen become two independent businesses again, but with the same owners. Royal Copenhagen has been through a period of revitalisation, which has left the business healthy and profitable, as well as giving it the resources to continue producing design classics of the finest craftsmanship.