Hjorth’s Factory

Rønne is the principal town of Bornholm, the Danish island in the Baltic Sea, which is well-endowed with clays suitable for ceramic manufactures. Lauritz Hjorth began to make terracotta in the town in 1859 and three years later moved to premises in Krystalgade, which the company he founded still occupies. The pottery is laid out around a courtyard and has an eight-bay red brick frontage to the main street. The works is open to visitors. Since Bornholm lacks coal, the pottery kilns were originally fired with wood from stretches of forest owned by the Hjorth family south of the town. The wood-fired kilns used from 1910 and 1964, made redundant by the introduction of gas-fired and electric kilns in 1964, are shown to visitors, who can also inspect modern clay preparation processes, and see potters’ wheels in use in the turning room. In the late nineteenth century the Hjorth factory was celebrated for its copies of classical vases from Greece, and its varied wares were sold to department stores in Berlin, Vienna, St Petersburg, Paris, London and Vienna. It was also well-known for black glaze wares whose manufacture was introduced in the 1880s. In the twentieth century the factory produced canisters, jars and other containers for pharmacists all over Europe. Many celebrated potters have worked at the factory and some of their pieces are displayed.