The motif of this 1975 Desiree Christmas plate from the Porcelain Factory Desiree, also known as Désirée Denmark, Svend Jensen of Denmark, Old Copenhagen Blue is coming from the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale The Ugly Duckling. The motif of the Christmas plate is The UglyDuckling in the pond one cold winter day. It is the first time the duckling sees the delightful and beautiful swans flying over its head. The duckling has only met hate and insult from other animals including its mother, brothers and sister through the first years of its life. The Ugly Duckling is travelling around the world but everywhere it is met with insult. Then it sees the fascinating swans and gos to meet them. The only expectation it has is to be attacked and killed but on the way to the swans the Ugly Duckling looks into the water and sees itself. But now it is not an Ugly Duckling, it is a swan that is just as beautiful as the other swans. When it comes near the adult swans it is met with joy. Some people believe that when Hans Christian Andersen wrote the fairytale "The Ugly Duckling" he saw himself as The Ugly Duckling. He came from straitened circumstances and was fighting for acknowledgement. This Christmas plate was designed by Svend Otto S.
Désirée started the Christmas plate series in 1970 and ended it in 2002. All motifs of the Hans Christian Andersen Christmas plates from Désirée are inspired by Hans Christian Andersen´s Fairy Tales