A passion for blue

Symbolising fidelity and secrecy, blue is a colour for which artists in the past would pay considerable sums. It is often the subject of writing. And it is also the colour in which the Royal Copenhagen expert painters excel.

Blue has innumerable shades and nuances. The truest and purest blue, cobalt, is used for decorating the classic Royal Copenhagen blue fluted service. Thousands of years before this, from as far back as 2600 BC, Egyptian and various other civilisations used cobalt to create intensely blue colour for glassware, glazing and ceramics.

Almost 7000 years ago, the Egyptians would crush the blue stone Lapiz Lazuli into a fine powder to use as pigment for eye makeup and murals on walls. Much later, medieval painters learned to use the stone's colour to manufacture paint, attaining the colour ultramarine.

"…"I have found it at last. This is the true blue. Oh, how light it makes one. Oh, it is as fresh as a breeze, as deep as a deep secret, as full as I say not what." With trembling hands she held the jar to her bosom…"

Quoting old Lady Helena's exclamation upon being presented with a blue-painted Chinese jar. Quote is from "The Young Man with the Carnation" from Winter's Tales by Isak Dinesen (the pen name of the Danish novelist Karen Blixen)

Royal Copenhagen's blue pigment is called cobalt zinc silicate and it is the cobalt that provides the distinctive blueness. In its infancy, Royal Copenhagen obtained their cobalt from Norwegian 'Blaafarveværket', the 'blue colour factory' a company that was responsible for between 70 and 80 percent of all global cobalt production throughout the 19th century.