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Bing & Grøndahl “Kalundborg Kirke” Reticulated Danish Porcelain Cabinet Plate — 7″ Hand-Tinted Church View

$29.00 Only one available

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Retro (1970s–1980s) Gilt, Porcelain / Ceramic Very Good
HDRH-VR-0032
Five towers, one church, and a small painted view worth keeping. This Bing & Grøndahl cabinet plate carries the Church of Our Lady in Kalundborg — that rare five-towered Romanesque landmark on the Danish island of Zealand — hand-tinted in full color: terracotta brick, verdigris copper spires, a half-timbered house off to the left, all under a soft Danish sky. The rim is where B&G shows off. It's reticulated, pierced by hand into a ribbon of open scallops, then finished with a gold edge and a band of powder blue. At 7 inches, it's made for a stand or a plate rail, not the dinner table.
  • Maker: Bing & Grøndahl, Copenhagen (green three-towers backstamp; form 616.S, decoration 3557)
  • Scene: "Kalundborg Kirke" — the five-towered Church of Our Lady, in overglaze polychrome
  • Border: Reticulated (hand-pierced) rim, gold-gilt edge, powder-blue band
  • Size: 7 inches in diameter — a display / cabinet plate
  • Era: Circa 1970–1982
Condition: Very Good. A few tiny dark flecks in the glaze on the blue band and only minimal wear to the gilt; no chips, cracks, crazing, or repairs, and the pierced border is fully intact. It presents beautifully.
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Bing & Grøndahl "Kalundborg Kirke" Reticulated Danish Porcelain Cabinet Plate — 7" Hand-Tinted Church View

Circa 1970–1982

Danish Topographical Porcelain

There's a church in Kalundborg, on the Danish island of Zealand, that looks like nothing else in Scandinavia. Five towers — a tall one at the center, four at the corners — rising from a cruciform plan laid down around 1170. Tradition gives it to Esbern Snare, brother of the Bishop Absalon who founded Copenhagen, and it has anchored the town's skyline for the better part of nine centuries. This plate keeps a small painted view of it: the terracotta brick, the verdigris copper spires, a half-timbered house tucked to the left, all under a soft Danish sky. That's the whole idea behind topographical porcelain — a real place someone stood in front of, admired, and wanted to carry home.

Bing & Grøndahl painted it. The Copenhagen house, founded in 1853, was one of Denmark's great porcelain makers before it merged into Royal Copenhagen in 1987. Its three-towers mark comes straight from the city's coat of arms — the towers of Absalon's own castle. What sets this piece apart is the border: reticulated, which means the rim is pierced by hand into a ribbon of open scallops, then finished in gold and powder blue. It's fussy, fragile work, and it survived whole. The plate spent years in a Virginia china cabinet that had gathered porcelain from several countries — Danish beside Irish, English, and Japanese — the kind of collection built one good piece at a time.

Materials Hand-painted overglaze porcelain with a reticulated (hand-pierced) rim, gold-gilt edge, and soft powder-blue band.
Care Display only — a cabinet plate, not tableware. Dust with a soft, dry cloth and keep the gilt rim away from water and dishwashers. A stand or plate rail shows it best.
From the Research Archives
vintagerose.us Catalog No. HDRH-VR-0032 • July 2026

Specifications

Dimensions
9 × 9 × 3 in
Weight
2 lbs
SKU
HDRH-VR-0032
There's a church in Kalundborg, on the Danish island of Zealand, that looks like nothing else in Scandinavia. Five towers — a tall one at the center, four at the corners — rising from a cruciform plan laid down around 1170. Tradition hands it to Esbern Snare, brother of the Bishop Absalon who founded Copenhagen, and it has anchored the town's skyline for the better part of nine centuries. This plate keeps a small, careful record of it. The scene is hand-tinted in full overglaze color — no underglaze cobalt here — so the brick reads warm terracotta, the copper spires that weathered verdigris green, with trees, a bit of lawn, and a half-timbered house tucked to the left. That's the whole spirit of Danish topographical porcelain: a real place someone stood in front of, admired, and wanted to carry home. Bing & Grøndahl painted it. The Copenhagen house was founded in 1853 and stood among Denmark's great porcelain makers right up until it merged into Royal Copenhagen in 1987. The green three-towers mark on the back comes straight from Copenhagen's coat of arms — the towers of Absalon's own castle — and it reads "Copenhagen Porcelain, Made in Denmark," with the form and decoration numbers and "Kalundborg Kirke" in blue script. What sets the piece apart, though, is the rim. Reticulated means it's pierced by hand into a run of open scallops — delicate, fussy work — then finished in gold and powder blue. That kind of border is the first thing to chip or crack over fifty years. This one came through whole. It spent its later life in a Virginia china cabinet that had gathered porcelain from several countries, Danish sitting right beside Irish, English, and Japanese, the way a good collection tends to grow.
  • Maker: Bing & Grøndahl, Copenhagen (green three-towers backstamp; form 616.S, decoration 3557)
  • Scene: "Kalundborg Kirke" — the five-towered Church of Our Lady, in overglaze polychrome
  • Border: Reticulated (hand-pierced) rim, gold-gilt edge, powder-blue band
  • Size: 7 inches in diameter — a display / cabinet plate
  • Era: Circa 1970–1982
Condition: Very Good. A few tiny dark flecks in the glaze on the blue band and only minimal wear to the gilt; no chips, cracks, crazing, or repairs, and the pierced border is fully intact. It presents beautifully.

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