Helge Christoffersen - a sculptor out of the ordinary
Helge Christoffersen ( 1925-65 ) started as a carver apprentice at age 16, but his teacher at the technical school sculptor Henry Luckow-Nielsen saw his talent and released him from the apprentice contract. and helped him being admitted to the Sculptor School at the Art Academy where the teacher was the sculptor Utzon Frank, and he was the teacher of almost all other significant sculptors of the period.
Helge Christoffersen was highly skilled manually. It took him a short time to make a model for a sculpture, and it gave him bread on the table to offer this help for Utzon-Frank, Mogens Bøggild, J. F Willumsen, and Jais Nielsen. In 1947 he joined the Royal Copenhagen as a helper for Jais Nielsen.
His masterpiece is three reliefs in ox blood glaze hanging in a prominent place in the Danish Parliament at the Christiansborg Palace. In 1948 he received the Academy small gold medal for a large allegorical figure "summer", which along with other seasonal sculptures were presented at Charlottenborg in Copenhagen.
At Royal Copenhagen he made at least 300 unique sculptures and other ceramic items. Only 14 of them are found in the stoneware catalog - and about half of these were produced in very small quantities. These are very rare today and are highly sought after. Many of his sculptures have undoubtedly been very expensive to produce, and it has set a limit to what Royal Copenhagen has been able to put on the market. When you look at his unique works today, there is little doubt that it is some of the most imaginative and expressive sculptures from that period.
Helge Christoffersen left the Royal Copenhagen in 1954 and established his own studio. He also worked for various other studios, and his works for them now pops up once in a while. Helge Christoffersen worked freelance for Just Andersen, and the Hjorts Factories on Bornholm. Here he designed at least three figurines. These are figurines made on base of models from his production at Royal Copenhagen. It is a woman 's face, a mermaid (siren) and a sculpture of two cats fighting. The figurines made for Hjorth are simplified and therefore better suited for production in large numbers. The figures were very popular and although there are many of them, almost none are for sale. This expresses that his sculptures have a wide popular appeal.
