The story of Porsgrund

The factory was founded in 1885 by shipsowner Johan Jeremiassen. The building construction was directed by the german Carl Maria Bauer, and already on February 10^th 1887 the first firing took place. The factory is idyllically placed at the banks of the Norwegian Porsgrunn River. During all its years of excistence, the factory has concentrated on and valued the production of quality and prestige products for sale and exhibition at home and abroad.

The factory is famous for its marvellous design and craftmansship as well as the excellent quality. The style-history of an entire century is exhibited in the Porsgrund production, and many famous norwegian artists have been engaged at the factory through times. Individuals to be mentioned could be: Thorolf Holmboe, Theodor Kittelsen, Gerhard Munthe,Tias Eckhoff, Odd Nerdrum, Jakob Weidemann, Ferdinand Finne and several others.

Today the factory is owned by the CG-Holding Company, making it part of the family of Hadeland Glasswerk, Christiania GlasMagasin, Steninge Slott and Smart Club. The owner is Atle Brynestad. Porsgrunds range of production has been diversified, reaching from tableware to plates og figurines. They have produced several dinnersets, christmas, mothers day and fathers day plates and various figurines as well. At royal events such as weddings, the factory is known to produce dinnersets marking the event, and named after the Norwegian highness involved. In Norway the factory is probably equivalent to Royal Copenhagen in Denmark.

Following Bing & Grøndahls example, when launching the worlds first christmas plate in 1895, the Porsgrund Factory released their first christmas plate in 1909, in a limited edition of 250 pieces. Their second christmas plate was not released untill 1968, and after that a plate was produced and released every year, in a limited edition - but larger than 250 pieces.