The motif of this 1997 Desiree Christmas plate from the Porcelain Factory Desiree, also knowned as Désirée Denmark, Svend Jensen of Denmark, Old Copenhagen Blue is found in the Hans Christian Andersen autobiography The Fairy Tale of My Life. In his autobiography Hans Christian Andersen writes about his stay at the Wulff family who were living in one of the Royal Palaces at Amalienborg Palace. Hans Christian Andersen wrote how he was standing by the window looking down to the palace square. The artist, Lis Torbol, has probably been thinking of this when she designed the Christmas plate of this year. On the Christmas plate you see The Amalienborg Palace Square with the guardsman and The Equestrian Statue of King Frederik V. King Frederik V founded "Frederiksstaden" in which Amalienborg Palace is the centre. It was founded in 1749 to mark that the House of Oldenburg took over the Danish throne 300 years ago. Some of the soil in "Frederiksstaden" was given to noble families conditioned that that they had to build palaces on them.
Désirée started the Christmas plate series in 1970 and ended in 2002. All motifs of the Hans Christian Andersen Christmas plates from Désirée were inspired by Hans Christian Andersen´s Fairytales