Tradition
Meissen
Germany · 18th century – present
Europe's porcelain secret. White gold unlocked.
An alchemist searching for gold accidentally discovered how to make porcelain—and ended China's monopoly forever.
For centuries, Europeans desperately wanted to make true hard-paste porcelain like the Chinese. Then in 1708, Johann Friedrich Böttger, an alchemist imprisoned by Augustus the Strong of Saxony to produce gold, instead discovered how to make porcelain using local kaolin clay. The Meissen factory was established in 1710, Europe's first hard-paste porcelain manufacturer. Its crossed-swords mark became a guarantee of quality. The secret eventually leaked—workers were bribed, techniques stolen—and porcelain factories spread across Europe.
What might you discover while searching for something else?
Techniques
- Hard-paste porcelain
- Overglaze painting
- Figurine modeling
- Gilding