Madam Blå

Brand
The brand Madam Blå belongs to the company Glud & Marstrand A/S. Today the danish company is part of the mexican corporation Envases Universales Group.

Poul Glud
Poul Christian Glud (October 3rd 1850 in Vejle, Denmark - March 19th 1924 in Mentone, USA) was a danish inventor, CEO and founder. He was apprenticed by his father, a creative plumber. In 1876 Poul Glud opnede a modest plumbing workshop at Nørrebro in Copenhagen. He sold a variety of sheet metal goods, with kerosene cooking appliances as greatest success. Sales was splendid, and soon he had to move to a larger location and hire people.

Poul Glud was a man of ideas, but business administration was not among his competences, and he entered partnership with ironmonger Troels Marstrand (1854-1929). In 1879 they founded Glud & Marstrands Fabriker, which was incorporated in 1895.

Madam Blå
Among the early goods was enameled cookware, which was known as Madam Blå (Madame Blue) becauce of the distinctive color. The same goods was also manufactured in other colors and presumeably sold as Madamw Sky Blue, Madame White, Madame Yellow, Madame Green, Madame Red and Madam Gray - or that might be a common assumption later on. It is not clear, wether Glud & Marstrand only referered to coffeepots as Madam Blå, or the whole range of enamel cookware. Alternately Madam Blå was expanded to refer to the blue enamel cookware in common understanding - and sometimes all enamel cookwares from Glud & Marstrand disregarding colour, as well as similar enamel goods fro other manufacturers including austrian Riess and polish Emalco. Presumeably thousands of item numbers, as well as custom products og Madam Blå toys were manufactured in the period 1895-1966.
 * In 1900 1,000 coffeepots was produced a day and 200,000 a year.
 * The Madam Blå coffeepot was produced in 18 different sizes from 1-50 cups of coffee
 * The danish news paper Politiken wrote an obituary in november 1966: Honored be the memory of Madam Blå. This is not just her final exit we experience, but the end of a piece of valuable danish cultural history
 * The landmark of Peter Larsen Coffee, Viborg, Denmark is a Madam Blå. The coffee pot is 5 yards 1 feet (4.96 m) tall and weighs 188 stones 14 pounds (1.2 Ton).

Aftermatch
Today information about the products are scarce. Most danes still recognice Madam Blå, and the blue shade akin to Parisian Blue is called Madam Blå-blue. But, some collectors, don't distinguise between this product, and similar products from other interior and exterior manufacturers incl. present polish Emalco, austrian Riess, Svenske Ronneby Bruk and french Le Creuset. Consequently it is difficult to distinguish fact from folklore. Glud & Marstrand has scrapped punch molds, blueprints etc. and have no knowledge about, which standard shade (RAL, Pantone etc.) is the true Madam Blå-blue - possibly in connection with the actual enamel works burning in 1668. As such very limited information is preserved for the future generations.