Rörstrand Marks: How to Date Your Porcelain

Rörstrand marks are dated in several layers. Faience of the 18th century was often marked with Stockholm, Rörstrand or an R together with a date and the painter’s sign, and can therefore often be dated to the year, sometimes to the day. From the end of the 19th century the ware bears a mark with three crowns and often a year mark. During the 20th century came pattern names, designers’ signatures and Sweden, which together with the form of the stamp give the date.

Facts

A factory in three cities

Rörstrand was founded in 1726 at Rörstrand Palace in Stockholm to make faience, and is Sweden’s oldest ceramics factory. During the Age of Liberty the factory made services, tureens and tiles for tiled stoves, and from 1758 it faced competition from Marieberg on Kungsholmen. In the 19th century Rörstrand switched to creamware and porcelain and became one of the largest factories in the Nordic countries; the Finnish Arabia was founded by Rörstrand.

The factory moved to Gothenburg in the 1920s and then to Lidköping, where production continued through the 20th century. The mark survives within the Fiskars group. Where the factory was and what it made are the first clues, and the guide to porcelain, faience and stoneware helps you decide which kind of ware you have.

Faience: dates and the painter’s sign

Rörstrand’s 18th-century faience was often carefully marked under the base, with the place name Stockholm or the factory name Rörstrand, or just an R, and with a date and the painter’s initials or sign. The date may be written as day, month and year, such as 9/3 65, and then the year meant is 1765. Many Swedish faience pieces can therefore be dated exactly, like the tureen from Rörstrand.

Compare with Marieberg’s faience, which was marked MB with a date and the painter’s sign. The marks were usually painted in blue or in the colour of the decoration, and are sometimes hard to read. Faience is recognised by its thick white tin glaze, which chips at the edges, and by stilt marks under the rim of dishes. The detail drawings further down show what the mark and the edge may look like.

Three crowns and year marks

When Rörstrand switched to creamware and porcelain the marking changed. In the 19th century marks with the factory name were printed or stamped, and from the end of the 19th century the three crowns became the factory’s hallmark, often with a year mark. The design of the mark, with or without text around the crowns and in different typefaces, changed over time.

Interpreting the year marks exactly requires a marks table for the factory, and such tables are found in the specialist literature on Rörstrand and at museums. Use the table together with the decoration and the form, since one and the same mark may have been used for several years.

Also look at how the mark is made. A mark painted or stamped under the glaze cannot be altered without showing, whereas a printed mark on top of the glaze may be worn or almost rubbed away after many years in the sink. A sharp, new mark under a worn surface, or a mark that sits on top of the glaze where the factory otherwise marked under it, is a reason to look more closely.

Art Nouveau and the services of the 20th century

Around 1900 Rörstrand made its best-known art porcelain. Alf Wallander became artistic director in 1895 and introduced the plant forms and muted underglaze colours of Jugendstil (Art Nouveau), as in the Art Nouveau vase from Rörstrand. Such pieces often bear Rörstrand’s mark with three crowns and sometimes Wallander’s signature. Similar porcelain was made at Royal Copenhagen, which was a model.

In the 20th century the services became the factory’s public face, with names such as Ostindia and Marianne Westman’s Mon Amie from 1952. The pattern name and the designer’s name are often printed under the base, as are Sweden or Made in Sweden on ware for export. Several patterns have been reissued, and the reissues have newer stamps than the originals – a reason always to read the whole mark.

Common confusions

Three crowns is a common Swedish sign, and it can be confused. On silver, three crowns is the control stamp, which shows the fineness, not the factory; see the guide to silver hallmarks. On porcelain three crowns is Rörstrand’s mark, but other factories have used crowns in their marks, such as Arabia in Finland, which Rörstrand founded in 1873.

Another mistake is to read the two-digit year on faience as the 19th century. Rörstrand’s faience of the 18th century often bears only the last two digits of the year, and the production of such faience ceased long before the 1860s. Rörstrand and Marieberg also made similar forms, so it is the mark, not the form, that tells them apart. Rörstrand’s history is shown in the Rörstrand Museum in Lidköping and in collections such as the National Museum and the Nordic Museum.

Step by step

First decide the body: faience, creamware or porcelain. Then read the whole mark: place or name, crowns, year mark, pattern name, signature and country. Faience with a date can be dated directly; later ware is dated with marks tables and by style, from the Art Nouveau of the turn of the century to the services of the Swedish welfare-state era.

Compare with the marks of other factories in the guide to porcelain marks, and with Rörstrand’s closest competitor in the guide to Gustavsberg marks. The page on ceramics has more on the history of the factories, and the East India Company porcelain shows the Chinese models that the faience sought to imitate.

How to recognise it

Exercise

Under a faience tureen is written Rörstrand, 9/3 65 and a painter’s initials. When was it probably made?