ACCENTS : Plates Preserve Flavor of Season
Along with mistletoe and evergreen wreaths, holiday china is a tradition of the season. Besides dinnerware with holiday motifs, there are at least 100 different series of commemorative Christmas plates.
The old favorites are still what sell best. The two most requested Christmas-theme china patterns at Replacements Ltd., a mail-order retailer in Greensboro, N.C., date back to 1938 and 1974, says company researcher Frank Cunningham. Spode’s Christmas Tree, introduced in 1938, is requested the most and Lenox China’s Holiday, introduced in 1974, is the second most popular.
The prize for longevity goes to Danish Christmas plates, issued each year since 1895 by Bing & Grondahl of Copenhagen. The B&G; Christmas plate is believed to be the first Christmas plate ever marketed.
Approximately 450 seven-inch plates were made, and each sold for 50 cents. That first plate’s face bore the date and the inscription, “Jule Aften,” which means Christmas Eve. The subject was a winter night’s view of Copenhagen’s skyline as seen through a frosted windowpane. Themes of succeeding plates also highlight winter and the holiday in Denmark.
Each year, a new plate appears on Jan. 1. Any that are not sold by Dec. 31 are broken, and the molds are destroyed. The 1994 Christmas plate sells for $72.50. B&G; declines to say how many plates it manufactures each year. The plates are marketed around the world, and tens of thousands are sold in the United States.
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Danish Christmas plates have been available in this country since the turn of the century, but the real growth of popularity started in the early 1970s as an outgrowth of the hobby of plate collecting, says Paul B. Steffensen, president of B&G.; The market for old Christmas plates is served mainly by antiques and collectibles dealers. Steffensen recently bought one of the original 1895 plates from a dealer for $5,200.
Replacements Ltd. has a running list of more than 440 clients who want to be notified when a B&G; Christmas plate turns up, according to Cunningham.
The origin of the idea for Christmas plates is a bit of a mystery. B&G; company lore says that Harald Bing, one of the company’s founders, got the idea for a special porcelain holiday plate from a long-standing Danish Christmas custom in which decorated wooden trays filled with Christmas cookies were given as gifts. By 1895, these trays had become elaborate and were being saved and collected. Bing decided to market a porcelain version.
Commemorative porcelain plates not tied to Christmas were made in Denmark as early as 1888 when Royal Copenhagen gave away small plates to advertise its booth at the Arts, Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition, a world’s fair held in Copenhagen. Royal Copenhagen later extended the production of commemorative plates by making up small quantities of souvenir plates to be given away to participants at grand events that usually involved royalty. In 1908, Royal Copenhagen began issuing a Christmas plate.
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Once the tradition of the Danish Christmas plate was begun, it continued through two world wars, a worldwide depression and even the merger of the two companies in 1985. To mark the event, B&G; and Royal Copenhagen, arch competitors for more than a century, introduced a Union Christmas plate in 1986. Each company continues to issue separate plates under its own trademark. While the blue and white plates are similar, aficionados can tell them apart. Both are dated, but the B&G; plate also has the words “Jule Aften” or “Jule” inscribed on the face.
Starting in January, B&G; will mark the centennial of its Christmas plate with a variety of events, including a traveling exhibition of all the plates and the release of several additional ones.
Americans are likely to hang Christmas plates on the wall or to display them in a china cabinet. In Denmark, the plates are often used to serve the holiday dessert of rich rice pudding.
“It is a fine conversation piece at the table to compare what year plate you have,” Steffensen says. “The Danes also bring out their collection of Christmas spoons to eat the pudding.”
Replacements Ltd. (800) 562-4462