Koldinghus - Flora Danica

Another exhibition going on at the moment at Koldinghus, was an exhibition about 'The World's Wildest Dinnerware' - Flora Danica. It started already in the courtyard, by presenting some of the inspiration for the set.

This exhibition showed us all about the origins of this historic porcelain service, linked to the Flora Danica, the world's most ambitious reference work on wild plants. This was published from 1761 to 1883. Bound copies of this encyclopaedia are found in the collection of the Danish Royal Family.

The Flora Danica project took more than 122 years to complete, and features precise descriptions of more than 3,200 plant species. Around 1789 it was decided to transfer some of this project onto precious porcelain as a way of showing prestige. Each of the many pieces of the service hence features images from the copperplate prints from the reference work, carefully reproduced in full scale.

The Flora Danica dinnerware was first used in 1803 at the birthday banquet for Christian VII. It has since only been used on very special occasions in the Royal House.
This exhibition is the first time the service is presented as comprehensively since 1990.

The dinnerware has 1,530 intact pieces, and is not only the best preserved porcelain service from the 18th century, but also the wildest in terms of splendor, decorations and storytelling.

Extraordinarily, the Flora Danica service includes egg cups. No other luxury dinnerware from this time includes egg cups. Originally there were 100 egg cups in the service. Soft boiled eggs used to be eaten in one of two different ways in the 18th century: served upright in the French style, or on its side according to German custom. These egg cups can be turned around to accommodate either way.
But the role of these egg cups at the Royal banquets raise many questions. For example, why eat soft boiled eggs during a meal? What did the guests do with the shells? And how do you manage to cook and serve 100 perfectly soft boiled eggs at once??

The images on the plates were not visible until the plates had been cleared, which makes you wonder if the decorations actually were secondary to the function. Were they meant to be seen at all? There are also images of the wild plants on the bottom of the sauce boat and in other surprising places, only briefly visible when those bowls and plates were emptied.

No plant in the Flora Danica encyclopaedia was too wild to decorate the dinnerware. You can find both poisonous mushrooms, rare orchids, humble algae, grass and endangered species amongst the decor. A strange contrast indeed to presenting food in the most appealing and appetizing way.

The dessert marks the climax of any meal and the Flora Danica pieces reflect this status of the dessert. The dessert pieces are the most sophisticated, designed and modelled with exceptional skill. Here below you see custard cups, used to serve smooth custard or ice cream or sherbet.

The Flora Danica service was created in the height of the Age of Enlightenment, but the question on why it was made has never really been answered. Was it supposed to be a diplomatic gift for Catherine the Great of Russia, or intended only for the table of the Danish king? Maybe it was designed as a promotional campaign for a new Danish porcelain factory? The set certainly holds a lot of myths associated with connections to national and international politics of the time.

What an impressive set of dinnerware, and what amazing stories it has to tell!