Fine Porcelain Dinnerware, Coffee & Tea Sets

For a long time, porcelain existed as nothing more than a rumor in Europe, one that stemmed from Marco Polo's journal entries about the wonderful ceramic dinnerware and tea sets he had seen when visiting the town of Tingui in China. He named this mysterious material porcellana after the Italian name for the cowries, the shiny yellowish-white shell of which it reminded him. Polo's interest aptly foreshadowed the rest of his country's desire: When the European trade ships first returned from China in the sixteenth century, people clamored for the rare porcelain.

Following the establishment of the India Companies at the beginning of the seventeenth century, increasing quantities of porcelain dinnerware found their way to Europe, which was soon in the grip of an almost manic enthusiasm for all things Chinese as well as a passion for collecting. Princely courts furnished rooms just for the pleasure of adorning the walls with costly items from East Asia. But as the princes' privy purses dwindled, they decided it was time to learn the mystery of porcelain manufacture themselves, so that the dependence on the expensive imports could come to an end. However, all attempts to reconstruct the composition of Chinese porcelain tea sets and dinnerware produced nothing more than very ordinary imitations.

EUROPEAN REINVENTION

Enter Johann Friedrich Boettger. From an early age, this Berlin-born apothecary's apprentice had occupied himself with all forms of alchemy (the attempt to turn base metals to gold. According to various contemporary reports, Boettger appeared to have come close to making gold or, more accurately, giving he impression of doing so. News of his near-achievement found its way to Friedrich I, the notoriously cash-poor King of Prussia, who after nine months on the throne found his realm in a state of impending bankruptcy. When news reached him of a gifted alchemist in town, he thought all his troubles were over and summoned Boettger to court. However, the latter immediately recognized the danger he was facing-being forcibly engaged to a hopeless task-and fled to Wittenberg in Saxony.

In doing so, however, Boettger put himself in another danger. Elector Augustus the Strong of Wittenberg was also in grave need of funds. Wars, the royal household, and a porcelain habit were swallowing up huge sums of money, and a fugitive alchemist was just what was needed. Boettger became a state prisoner, and his task from then on was to discover porcelain (the "philosopher's stone) and in so doing free Augustus from all his financial worries.

This could have been the end for Boettger, because failed alchemists - and, of course, they all failed - were generally hanged. But Boettger was spared this fate by the lucky fact that Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirmhaus was appointed to oversee his work. Von Tschirmhaus, a physicist, had already spent many years attempting to fire aluminum oxide so as to arrive at the "arcanum", the correct combination of minerals to produce porcelain, and he persuaded Boettger to turn his attention to the manufacture of ceramics. Together, after numerous attempts at firing and mixing, von Tschirmhaus and Boettger succeeded in producing a particularly hard, red ceramic, known as Boettger porcelain (or more accurately Boettger stoneware). And finally, in 1708, it all came together: The Arcanum was discovered, and the white porcelain was manufactured in Europe for the first time.

The Elector Augustus was happy, but his porcelain dreams now knew no bounds. On January 23, 1710, he announced the establishment of a porcelain factory in Dresden. For reasons of secrecy, the manufacture was relocated later that year nearby to Meissen, where it remains to this day as Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GmbH.

But no secret can be kept forever, which is just as well, because the numerous factories that sprang up in the eighteenth century ushered in the heyday of European porcelain art. The rococo love of graceful, dainty items and the pioneering spirit of craftsmen combined to produce creations that have retained their fascination to this day.

CONTINUED PASSION

However, porcelain would not have reached such lasting popularity if its various manifestations had reflected only the tastes of specific era of the distant past. In its forms and patterns, porcelain has invariably conveyed the spirit of its time and adapted itself to changing requirements and preferences on the part of buyers. This was the case in the nineteenth century, when the emerging bourgeoisie placed new demands on the articles of domestic life. The same happened in the twentieth century, when porcelain finally evolved into a commodity article.

Even in porcelain's most modern form, for example, in limited collectors' editions of serving ware, dinnerware, and coffee & tea sets, it continues to strike a delicate balance between artistic design and every day practicality. Whether design classic or brand-new creations, through all its transformations and concessions to contemporary taste, porcelain has retained its aura of exclusivity and its ability to inspire king-sized passion and interest. See our porcelain collection