The Rörstand company is one of the oldest pottery manufacture brands in Europe. Today it is best known for its modern Scandinavian designed porcelain dinnerware but the company has a much more diverse past than porcelain tableware production.
Early History
Founded in the castle of Rörstrand, Sweden and financed by the Porcelain Society in 1726—a group of twenty wealthy businessmen and nobles—the company's goal was to match the success of the Meissen factory in Germany. For this they brought in a German/Danish ceramicist, Johann Wolff, to manage the company. Wolff's experience was in the production of tin-glazed faience, at the time the most common type of pottery in Europe.
The company began by the production of blue and white faience and Delft. In 1729 porcelain specialist Cristoph Hunger, who had worked at Meissen, was brought in to manage the company though initial experiments with porcelain manufacture proved unccessful. In 1740 Anders Fahlstorm succeeded him followed by Elias Ingman in 1753 who introduced the first polychrome decoration in 1758. The same year the company merged with nearby factory Marieberg and acquired their soft paste and hard paste technology. By 1800 the company was mass producing porcelain and faience dinnerware in both transfer and polychrome decoration.
Majolica
In the 1860s Rörstrand entered the majolica market, initially copying designs from British potters. In time they developed their own style. The company’s decorative earthenware production, of which majolica was part, was always considered secondary to their porcelain dinner services and faience and as such was not produced in equal quantities.
Rörstrand majolica has a distinctive look about it, favoring subdued earth tones over their bright, colorful British and French counterparts. I show a typical comparison below between a Minton majolica original and Rörstrand majolica copy.
They also added gold trim to many of their products, which was common in other European countries outside of Great Britain and France. The 19th century Continental European taste for the Renaissance Revival style dominates much of their output. Like most large potteries Rörstrand did a variety of wares
Rörstrand Moss Majolica
The company made a majolica product similar to Samuel Lear's Moss Ware that was also made by Wardle and Forester. It used a lead based glaze that was then covered with ground clay and applied flowers. They called it Moss. Today it is colloquially referred to by the misnomer sand majolica.
Rörstrand remained in the majolica market longer than most British companies, ending production in the early years of the 20th century.
Modern History
The company moved production from Stockholm to Gothenburg in 1926 with the acquisition of Götenborg Porslinfabfrik. After the 1936 merger with Lidköpings Porslinsfabrik, Rörstrand relocated to Lidköping. From 1963 on the company has been acquired by numerous multinational companies beginning with their purchase by the Uppsala-Ekeby Group. In 1984 it was sold to the Finnish company Wärtsilä Oy. In 1987 Wärtsilä Oy bought Gustavsbergs Porslinsfabrik, finally joining together the two largest Swedish ceramic majolica manufacturers, Gustafsberg and Rörstrand. The Finnish Hackman Group then acquired the company in 1990. In 2005 production out of Sweden to Hungary and Sri Lanka but the company maintained their presence in Sweden. The company changed hands once again in 2007 when it was purchased by the Fiskars Group, a Finnish consumer goods company. Rörstrand ceramics are still in production with headquarters remaining in Sweden in Höganäs.
Marks
Rörstrand wasn't fastidious in the marking of their wares but those that are marked use either an impressed mark or ink stamped mark of the name Rörstrand in script with three crowns representing the three crowns of Sweden’s national coat of arms—the heraldic symbol known as Tre Kronor.
The value of Rörstrand majolica varies wildly depending on the desirability of the piece and location with items in Europe commanding higher prices than those in the United States.
