Rörstrand Julen
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Rörstrand is one of Europe's oldest and most celebrated porcelain manufacturers, established in 1726 at Rörstrand castle outside Stockholm. Over nearly three centuries the firm grew from an early faience workshop into one of the nation's largest factories by the 1860s, employing around 1,100 people by 1900, with products that had an excellent reputation worldwide and successful participation in art and industrial exhibitions. Production later relocated from Stockholm to Gothenburg and finally to Lidköping, where the Rörstrand name remains closely tied to Swedish design heritage today.
The plate itself belongs to Rörstrand's long-running "Julen" (Christmas) series, an annual line of limited-edition collector's plates issued each year from 1968 until 1999. These cobalt blue Christmas plates were designed by Gunnar Nylund (G. N.) for Rörstrand, with each edition depicting the character Nils Holgersson in different folklore scenes of Sweden, drawing on Selma Lagerlöf's celebrated novel "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils," a story translated into over ninety languages.
Gunnar Nylund, the artist behind the series, was one of the towering figures of twentieth-century Scandinavian ceramics. He was one of the most famous Swedish ceramic designers of the 20th century, renowned for his iconic stoneware, and had an important impact on modern Swedish ceramics, beginning his career at Bing & Grøndahl in Copenhagen before serving as art director of Rörstrand from 1931 to 1955. His long tenure shaping Rörstrand's artistic output, combined with the enduring popularity of the Nils Holgersson theme and the collectible, dated nature of the annual Julen series, is what continues to make these plates sought after by collectors of Swedish porcelain and holiday china alike.
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