Story of Bing And Grondahl Christmas Plates

Created in 1895, the idea of Christmas plate originated with Harald Bing, owner of Bing & Grondahl, who hired Swedish artist Frans August Hallin to create the motif. Hallin's technique of cutting the motif for the plate in relief created a very detailed expression. The first motif was the Copenhagen skyline.'Many, many years ago the wealthy people of Europe started a Christmas custom of giving to each of their servants a platter heaped with fruit, cookies, candies and other good things to eat. At first the platter was probably a crude thing of wood, and very little thought was given to it. The rich focused their attention on the contents of the tray, hoping to bring a little cheer into the lives of the recipients by giving them especially good things to eat around the holiday season.The servants looked forward each Christmas to receiving their gifts. Since these people had few things in their homes which were not utilitarian, perhaps it was only natural that they began hanging the platters on their walls after the food was eaten. They referred to these platters as their 'Christmas Plates.'Later the servants of one family started showing their Christmas Plates to the servants of other households. When the employers realized that there was rivalry among the servants of the various households regarding who received the most beautiful plates, they began giving more consideration to the platter itself. Eventually beautiful platters were made of many materials, such as metal, wood and pottery. They were sometimes elaborately carved or decoratively painted. In fact, the wealthy, in an effort to outdo each other, commenced devoting more attention to the plate itself than to its contents. Later they started dating each platter so that it would be easy to see which year each had been given. Thus began the custom of making and collecting Christmas Plates.'-Preface