Lot 654 | Royal Kopenhagen | LARGE PORCELAIN VASE WITH PLAYING CATS

LARGE PORCELAIN VASE WITH PLAYING CATS.

Royal Kopenhagen.
Date: 1908.
Maker/Designer: Decor Knud Kyhn.
Technique: Porcelain, grey ground.
Description: Baluster-formed vase with pale grey ground. In white bas relied three playing young cats
resp. the upright sitting mother cat on the verso.
Measurement: Height vase 30cm. Associated lamp element height 60cm.
Mark: Green manufacture mark. Wave mark, painted blue under glaze. Indistinct 'K. Kyhn 08'.
Original lamp element.


Provenance:
Private collection Cologne.

Literature:
Reineking von Bock, Gisela: Kopenhagener Porzellan und Steinzeug - Unikate des Jugendstil und Art Deco, Cologne, 1991. The present vase is listed and described on p.99, no.95 and p.88f.

The vase presented here is a unique piece by the painter and sculptor Knud Kyhn (1880-1969).
He worked for the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Copenhagen and the porcelain manufactory Bing & Grøndahl for various periods. He trained at the Artist Study School in Copenhagen, after which he fired his first ceramics in 1900. Three years later, he exhibited at the Royal Copenhagen Manufactory - his works were characterised by harmonious colours and lively modelling and found a large number of buyers.
In the following years, he regularly produced unique pieces for the manufactory. His many animal figurines became particularly well known. The end of the 19th century was a great time for depictions of animals of all kinds: fish, ducks, geese, crows, insects and frogs. Pets, however, were rarely depicted. In this sense, the present vase is a special piece.
It fits in with the always somewhat dreamy depictions of Danish porcelain from this period. Influenced by Japonism, the depictions of animals always show a loving nature with peaceful behaviour.