In Denmark, some of the earliest examples of artistic stoneware were produced at Royal Copenhagen, with glazes by the chemist Valdemar Engelhardt (1860-1915) on forms by Hans Hjorth. It was really only with the arrival in 1911 at Royal Copenhagen of the Swede Patrick Nordström (1870-1929) that commercial stoneware production took off in earnest.  Patrick Nordström was born in Väsby, outside Höganäs, a major Swedish pottery center. He was the son of a master carpenter and trained as a woodcarver and sculptor. After completing his studies in Stockholm, he spent five years traveling in Europe, starting in Berlin and going on to Venice and Paris.  Before leaving Paris, he worked as a stucco and ornament sculptor in the construction of buildings for the 1900 Paris Exhibition Universelle, where he is reported to have been impressed by the work of a new generation of French stoneware artists, including Carries, Chaplet, Delaherche and Dalpayrat.  Also in attendance at the Paris exhibition was Arnold Krog (1856-1931), the Danish architect, painter and designer, who served as Artistic Director at Royal Copenhagen from 1884 to 1916, and who returned from Paris inspired and determined to bring the art of stoneware manufacture to Denmark.   After leaving Paris, Nordström took up residence in Copenhagen, where he initially resumed his profession as an ornament sculptor. In his spare time he began to experiment with ceramic works, a field in which he was entirely self-taught, in a self-built kiln in the basement of his home in Fredriksberg. In 1911, he produced his first pieces in stoneware in a kiln in the garden of his villa in Vanlöse, where he also fired works for other artists, including Knud Kyhn and J.J. Bregnöe.  Nordström drew his inspiration from the Chinese and Japanese influences on French stoneware artists. Nordström’s production soon attracted the interest of Arnold Krog at Royal Copenhagen, and he began work there in 1912, initially to develop stoneware glazes. He was to remain at Royal Copenhagen for ten years, eventually assuming overall responsibility for its stoneware production. Nordström left Royal Copenhagen in 1922 to establish his own workhop in Islev, but only after leaving a legacy of technical innovation in glazes, his own body of studio stoneware inspired by Japanese and Chinese art, and a group of trained collaborators to carry on Royal Copenhagen’s stoneware tradition. His matte crystaline glazes, inspired by those developed in the far east, were continued and perfected by fellow Royal Copenhagen artists Carl Halier, Axel Salto and Nils Thorsson.