Design Textiles Georg Jensen Damask
Sct. Knuds Ørne
A damask-woven tablecloth with an eagle pattern taken from the 11th-century silk in Odense Cathedral, made by Georg Jensen Damask since 1926.
- Made by
- Georg Jensen Damask
- First made
- 1926
Pictures © Georg Jensen Damask, from georgjensen-damask.com.
Why it is renowned
Sct. Knuds Ørne carries a pattern nearly a thousand years old: an eagle with a crescent-shaped jewel in its beak and half-spread wings, set in an oval arabesque medallion, copied from a silk cloth thought to come from Byzantium.1 The tablecloth won the medal for craftsmanship and industrial art in the year it was launched, 1926.1
In 1995 the Danish engineering weekly Ingeniøren called the "eagle cloth" a popular fixture of Danish dinner tables that had become typically Danish, and noted that the weaving mill in Kolding had kept it in production since 1926; that year it came out in dark blue.2 Georg Jensen Damask has since reintroduced it, woven from double-twisted, combed cotton in light grey.1
The story
The pattern goes back to King Knud the Holy, who was killed in 1086 and canonised in 1100. His remains were laid in the crypt of Odense Cathedral wrapped in a silk cloth with an eagle pattern, and the cloth is still on display there.1
In 1925 Henrik Georg Jensen, then head of Georg Jensen Damask, was given permission to copy the cloth. It became a damask tablecloth, launched in 1926 and woven at the company's mill in Kolding.12
Sources
- Sct. Knuds Ørne, Georg Jensen Damask. georgjensen-damask.com, read 1 October 2026.
- Damask, ørne og eventyr, Ingeniøren (1995-06-02). ing.dk, read 1 October 2026.
Last checked 1 October 2026, against the maker's own pages.