Hard Bodies and Delicate Figures: The Origins of European Porcelain

The Chinese invented porcelain, a mixture of certain types of clay and water, somewhere between 1,400 and 1,800 years ago. Kaolin clay, or china clay, porcelain’s key ingredient, was responsible for the white, translucent appearance that was so desirable to European collectors that they referred to Chinese porcelain as “white gold.” For hundreds of years, Islamic and European potters made imitation porcelains, in appearance and composition, and attempted to discover the formula for the real thing. Finally, at the beginning of the 18th century in Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen, the “arcanum”, the secret, was revealed.

Jar, Jingdezhen, China, c. 1622-1722, porcelain

The passion and competitive drive of one German ruler, Augustus the Strong (so named for his prodigious ability to sire illegitimate children), ensured the discovery of porcelain’s secret. The Elector of Saxony, and sometime King of Poland, had an enormous appetite for collecting Chinese and Japanese porcelain and was determined to outshine other European rulers in creating lavish porcelain-filled palaces. By 1719, he had filled 20 rooms of his Dutch Palace in Dresden with so much porcelain that he built a bigger palace, called the Japanese Palace, and kept buying. The Japanese Palace eventually held 57,000 pieces of Asian and Meissen porcelain. During this ceramic arms race, Augustus actually made a deal with Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia to exchange 600 men from the Saxon army for 151 large Chinese vases from a Prussian palace. The vases arrived unbroken; no one recorded the condition of the displaced soldiers.

 In addition to extreme acquisitiveness, a doctrine of mercantilism drove the German States to produce what they could within their borders and limit imported goods. With the increase in coffee, tea, and chocolate drinking in the 17th century came an increased demand for cups, plates, and serving dishes. Thus Augustus had two compelling reasons to sponsor and subsidize research into the secret of porcelain. He started by finding, and confining, two scientists: a ceramicist and an alchemist.

Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus began working for Augustus in the early years of the 18th century with porcelain making as his task. Johann Friedrich Böttger, a former chemistry student and aspiring alchemist, escaped certain imprisonment by the King of Prussia who heard stories of Böttger turning base metal into gold. Augustus also heard the stories, so when Böttger turned up in Saxony, Augustus similarly confined him in Albrechtsburg Castle hoping to get enough gold to fund his wars. Böttger, whose gold-making experiments were becoming as futile as his excuses, was fortunate to be paired with Tschirnhaus to work on a chemical formulation for porcelain. Around 1707, working with clay formulas, Böttger initially succeeded in producing a red stoneware that was so hard and strong, it could be cut on a wheel after firing. Workers at the castle were soon producing a range of objects from the red stoneware.

Augustus the Strong, attributed to Johann Joachim Kretzschmar, c. 1713, red stoneware

In 1708, right before Tschirnhaus died, the two men experimented with a special china clay found in Saxony’s soil to which Böttger added ground alabaster. When fired, the result had the desired effect: a hard, transculent white porcelain. It was the first true porcelain in Europe. The delighted Augustus proclaimed his royal porcelain manufactory at Meissen in January 1710 and expanded production. He also became its biggest customer.

Unfortunately Augustus’s gratitude was limited by his suspicions and optimistic hope that a gold-making factory was still possible. He kept Böttger captive until 1714. While he gets most of the credit for creating European porcelain, Böttger had little time to enjoy his accomplishment. He died in 1719, aged 37, probably ill from exposure to the myriad of chemicals and metals in his experiments as well as alcoholism. His confinement seems all the more unfair because potters and kiln masters were spiriting away Meissen’s secrets almost as soon as the factory began. By 1719, royal patrons all over Europe had their own porcelain factories. The formula and techniques spread across Germany to Austria to Venice to France, most notably at the royal manufactory at Sèvres.

Despite the competition, Meissen grew into one of the finest porcelain factories in Europe with a cadre of craftsmen whose work was unrivalled in the first half of the 18th century. In its early years, the factory produced white wares that were then painted with decorative ornamentation and scenes. Many of the painters, called hausmaler, worked from their homes, creating original patterns or following engravings supplied by the factory. The Meissen factory soon employed staff painters and developed the famous crossed swords on the bottom of its objects to distinguish their work from the hausmaler pieces. Meissen also developed the technique of covering the piece with a “ground” color while leaving a “reserve” white panel on which a narrative scene was painted. Sèvres would borrow the technique and make it much more famous.

Cup, Meissen, 18th century, porcelain

While the clay body of Meissen porcelain was excellent as a painted surface, the potters soon found it was outstanding for sculptural modelling. In the early 1730s, Gottlieb Kirchner and Johann Joachim Kaendler arrived at Meissen and created figures in clay. Kirchner earned a commission from Augustus to model a life-size menagerie of nearly 450 animals and birds for the Japanese Palace. In contrast, Kaendler developed a range of petite, delicate painted figurines ranging from exotic foreigners to Tyrolean folk types, with his most famous series based on the commedia dell’arte. Meissen’s figures soon became the central decorations on lavish aristocratic Konfekt (dessert) tables, replacing traditional molded sugar and marzipan decorations.

Harlequin figure, J.J. Kaendler, Meissen, 1741, porcelain

After Augustus the Strong’s death in 1733, his successor showed less interest the factory and appointed court minister Count Heinrich von Brühl to oversee to Meissen’s production. The Count took a more commercial approach, emphasizing mass production over individual commissions. Meissen is the first European factory to design and sell complete matched dinner services. To help market his factory’s craftsmanship, the Count ordered his own Swan Service, a tour-de-force of modelling and painting. Beginning with a Konfect service, the factory produced a total of 2,200 pieces of the Swan Service between 1737 and 1741. One can only imagine the size of the dinner party it served.

Dish from Swan Service, J.J. Kaendler, Meissen, 1737-41, porcelain

By the second half of the 18th century, Meissen had strong competition across Europe that eclipsed its dominance. Yet for over 300 years the factory adapted its wares to the tastes of the day and survives to this day in its original birthplace. While the alchemists never did conjure up any gold, they transformed the ceramic world with their version of “white gold.”

All images © Victoria and Albert Museum, London; except Augustus the Strong, @Metropolitan Museum of Art

Related sites:

Albrechtsburg Castle, Meissen

Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur, Meissen

Porzellansammlung, Dresden

Japanese Palace, Dresden