Patrick Nordström
In 1912 Swedish ceramist Patrick Nordström arrived at Royal Copenhagen with his own supply of stoneware clay, glaze materials, and methods. He soon became the manager of the stoneware department and within a few months his work was on display in the Danish Society of Arts and Crafts Exhibition. Nordström created a unique array of vessels and objects using the examples of Jean Carriès and the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory as his starting points and continually pushing for originality in body, color, and glaze effects. Because of his great success at Royal Copenhagen, he is known in his homeland as the Father of Stoneware.
Patrick Nordström was born is Höganäs, Sweden, a village known for its stoneware industry. The Höganäs factory, although not well known in the U.S. today, was rather advanced in its time and is still a major producer of modern stoneware. In the winter of 1896-97, the artist Helmer Åslund became the artistic advisor at Höganäs. He had previously worked as an artistic decorator at Gustavsberg, and studied art under Paul Gauguin and J.F. Willumsen in Paris. Åslund was hired to create a new collection for the company's showcase at the upcoming arts and industry exhibition in Stockholm. There is little doubt that Patrick Nordström was aware of these developments and long-acquainted with the importance of stoneware, the industry that dominated the economy of his hometown.
Nordström attended the Technical College in Stockholm (now known as the University College of Arts and Crafts) where he specialized in sculpture. It appears that he had moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, before accepting employment creating architectural sculpture in Paris at the time of the 1900 Exposition Universelle. It was there that he saw the posthumous exhibition of work by French ceramist Jean Carriès and current advanced work by the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory. He returned to Denmark determined to become a ceramist and to uncover the secret of the prized sang de boeuf glaze.
Nordström learned basic ceramic techniques at his own at his studio in Bakegard Salle between 1902 to 1907, largely through trial and error. His work from that period was unremarkable. Between 1907 and 1910 he worked at Vanlose (a district of Copenhagen), using ready-made German clays and glazes. In his pursuit of information on ceramics chemistry and techniques he consulted published sources that were readily available in major libraries. Most important seems to have been an article that appeared in Art et Decoration in October 1910 that revealed details about Jean Carriès's body clays, glazes, and firing techniques. The author, an assistant of the late Carriès, furthermore referred to an earlier account of Sèvres methods by Taxile Doat that had appeared in the same journal. Apparently Nordström assimilated information from both sources and was able to use it a a basis for further experimentation. During his ten-year career at Royal Copenhagen he worked with modeler Knud Khyn, potter Carl Halliler, and general assistant Jais Nielsen. Axel Salto was perhaps his best-known follower in the stoneware department of Royal Copenhagen.
In 1922, after Nordström's retirement from Royal Copenhagen, he moved to Islev, Denmark, where he continued to experiment with ceramics and glazes until his death in 1929.