Porcelain in Germany - Its Begining and End

The porcelain produced since 1710 is called Meissen in Germany. Johann Bottger successfully experiments in making a hard red ware, he was able to make a white one and in 1710 the Royal Saxon Manufactory was established. Dresden initiated a series of and covered pots in the form of animals, fishes, birds, flowers, fruit and vegetables. And design and workmanship reached their heights in the years between 1740 and 1750 in Germany.

As well as figures, Dresden made tableware's, and initiated a series of tureens and covered pots in the form of animals, fishes, birds, flowers, fruit and vegetables. Proof of the success of all these is the fact that so many factories, at one time or another, imitated not only the designs but also added a fake crossed-swords mark. The latter often on wares far removed from any thing likely to have come from Germany, but taking full advantage of the high reputation that country enjoyed for making fine china.

Design and workmanship reached their heights in the years between 1740 and 1750; the years during which most countries were managing to start their own soft-paste factories in attempts to rival the imported product. It was the decade that saw the fashion for porcelain as a dinner-table decoration; temples, fountains and palaces were made to stand in the centre of the board, surrounded by the inhabitants of a world of fantasy created by the potter. The banquets of Continental royalties stimulated the production of these pieces, but the custom does not seem to have been widespread in England.

The Seven Years War from 1756 to 1763 saw the end of the most important and prolific period of Dresden, and although new models were introduced continuously afterwards none capture the brilliance of the earlier years. Kandler died in 1775, when the factory was under the direction of Count Camillo Marcolini; whose name is given to the period 1774 to 1814, when he was the government minister responsible for the factory.

Dresden china was copied not only in the countries where it was imported but the factory re-issued the same models again and again. The composition of the body and glaze has changed little, but new colors have been introduced from time to time. It is these, together with the quality of painting and the finish of the porcelain, that distinguish old from new.

From the year 1713, when examples of Dresden white porcelain were exhibited at the Leipzig Easter Fair, a bid was made to capture markets throughout Europe. Saxony badly needed money, which was why Bottger had been endeavoring in the first place to make gold, and the export of porcelain was to be the means of providing it. The policy was successful until the Seven Years War upset progress, but by that date almost every country had its own manufactories, and once the German works had loosed its grip it was never regained.

It was due to the activities of a small number of Arcanists, men who knew or professed to know the secrets of porcelain-manufacture that other factories came into being following the success of Dresden. These men offered their knowledge and services where they thought it would pay them best, and in spite of the strictest precautions to prevent their defection. The first to benefit was Vienna in Austria.

Germany was doing quite well in its progress in porcelain. But the Seven Years War upset the progress of this industry in the country and it never regained the grip once Germany loosed it in the works of porcelain.