Porcelain, oriental, continental and British, a book of handy reference for collectors by Hobson R. L. (Robert Lockhart) 1872-1941

Author:Hobson, R. L. (Robert Lockhart), 1872-1941
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pottery, Pottery -- Marks
Publisher: London, Archibald Constable
Published: 1906-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

CONTINENTAL PORCELAIN

for an inventory of the year 1711 speaks of no less than two thousand pieces of it. It was embellished in various ways—with applied sprigs, with raised ornament coloured with enamels, by gilding or silvering, by polishing, by cutting like cut-glass, by engraving and by glazing with black. The discovery of the kaolin of Aue, no doubt, gave an impetus to the manufacture of white porcelain. This was the famous Schnorrische weisse Erde, said to have been brought to Bottger's notice in the form of a white powder prepared by one Schnorr and used for powdering wigs.

Regular supplies were first sent to Bottger in 1711. When the importance of Bottger's discovery was realised by his royal patron, the potter and his workmen were removed for greater privacy to the Albrechts-burg at Meissen, a few miles west of Dresden, where they worked practically as state prisoners. All approach to the factory was forbidden, the workmen were pledged to the deepest secrecy, and it is said that they were kept in remembrance of their vows by the inscription Geheim bis ins Grab (secret to death) written over the doors. These precautions, however, were of little avail; for in a few years time several workmen made their escape and carried the secret to the neighbouring states, where they were welcomed as " arcan-ists," a term applied from this time to the possessors of special knowledge of this branch of ceramics.

Meissen porcelain, known in France as porcelaine de Saxe and inaccurately called in England Dresden porcelain, was in its first days a white ware, only decorated with moulded ornament. During Bottger's lifetime blue painting under the glaze was not yet

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