The Dutch designer Hella Jongerius was born in De Meern near Utrecht in 1963. She studied at the Design Academy in Eindhoven from 1988 to 1993 and subsequently joined the famous Dutch Droog design group of designers. She later founded her own firm in Rotterdam in 2000. Through the jongeriusLab, she produces a unique wealth of textiles, crockery and furniture. Her designs combine new technological achievements with the uniqueness and importance that only handmade historic objects possess: “I’m trying to make products that can be loved and that people want to own their whole lives to then pass them on to the family.”

Hella Jongerius designed the “Nymphenburg Sketches” service as well as the “Four Season” collection – mirror, teapot, wine jug and candlestick – for Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg. Her “Animal Bowls,” however, are the most famous. From 700 animal figures that the archive at Nymphenburg holds, she chose five and placed them in bowls. She has supplemented the naturalistic painting of the snail, bird, rhinoceros, deer and hare with a second pattern from Nymphenburg’s design repertoire – irrespective of whether they were originally intended for a soup tureen or used for the plumage of a guinea fowl.