Caspar Henrik Berntsen Kauffeldt (19 February 1773 – 19 August 1843) was a Norwegian industrialist. He was the founder of Gjøvig Glassverk. Kauffeldt was born in

Gjøvik is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Toten. The administrative centre of the municipality is town of Gjøvik. Some of the villages in Gjøvik include Biri, Bybrua, and Hunndalen. The ...

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The co ...

, Norway. In 1804 he bought a farm in Gjøvig, which was at the time a rural area by the

Hunnselva Hunnselva is a river in Innlandet and Viken counties in Norway. The long river is located mostly in Innlandet county, but the headwaters are actually just over the border in Viken county. The river generally flows north and it runs through the l ...

river. In 1807 he founded the glass factory Gjøvig Glassverk on the other side of the river, creating an industrial environment and laying the grounds for a larger city there. The factory became known for its blue vases, basing the color on

cobalt blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminum(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighter ...

from Blaafarveverket at

Åmot Åmot is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Rena. Other villages in the municipality include Åsta, Osneset, an ...

Modum Modum is a municipality in Buskerud in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Vikersund. The municipality of Modum was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The area has a long tr ...

. In the 1830s, his son Wexel Hansen Kauffeldt (1801–1860) took over most of the factory administration. The operation became increasingly difficult with increasing competition from abroad. It was discontinued in 1843, and Caspar Kauffeldt died in the same year. Nearby to the factory, Kauffeldt had also erected the administration building "Kauffeldtgården". The building still stands today, and was preserved in 1985.

References

1773 births 1843 deaths People from Gjøvik Norwegian people of German descent Norwegian company founders {{Norway-business-bio-stub