Royal Copenhagen, officially the Royal Porcelain Factory, is a Danish manufacturer of porcelain products, founded in Copenhagen in 1775 under the protection of Queen Juliane Marie. It is recognized by its factory mark, the three wavy lines above each other symbolizing Denmark’s thee seas. The Royal Copenhagen manufactory operations were founded by a chemist, Frantz Heinrich Müller, who was given a fifty-year monopoly to create porcelain. The first pieces manufactured were dining services for the royal family. In 1779, the manufactory was styled the Royal Porcelain Factory when King Christian VII assumed financial responsibility. In 1882, it was purchased by the faience factory Aluminia and shortly after was moved to a modern factory building. By 1889, Royal Copenhagen was qualified for the World Expo in Paris, winning the Grand Prix, giving it international exposure. In recent years, Royal Copenhagen was a part of a group of Scandinavian companies, Royal Scandinavia. In 2012 it was sold to the Finnish listed company Fiskars, which was founded in 1649.
