Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar81911newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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10 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS January, 1911 under surveillance, and with strict injunctions if he valued his personal well-being, to go ahead and make gold. His researches were pursued under the stimulus of his dread of having his career suddenly terminated by the public ex- ecutioner, but although he did not succeed in making gold, he finally produced, as a residual product of one of his experiments, a substance of a red color, closely resembling porcelain, but more nearly a very fine grade of stoneware. In the possibilities of this discovery, August II was at once interested, as next to gold it was likely to prove at that epoch the most profitable discovery he could have expected, and one likely to redound to his own credit, so he encour- aged Boettger to proceed. In 1709 he had succeeded in turning out some really creditable articles in his redstone ware, for which he managed the following year to per- fect a fine glaze, and specimens of the ware he produced at this period, although scarce, are yet to be seen in ceramic collections, notably in the museum at Dresden. Some of them, including teapots, teacups and saucers, were shown at the great fair in Leipzig in 1710. with silver, gold, platina or colored enamels, it was ex- ceedingly attractive, as specimens still in existence prove, so much so that the King used the choicer pieces as gifts for his most esteemed friends and favorites, often mount- ing them in the precious metals. But the production of this stoneware, or "Boettger" ware, successful as it proved, did not satisfy Boettger. The artistic instinct aroused in him spurred him to further achievements, and he aimed at the production of ware that would compare in fineness, originality and delicacy, with the creations of the Oriental artists. With the best materials the country furnished, at his command, supple- mented with others that he discovered or pressed into his service, the Kaolin he found in his hair powder, being ac- cording to some accounts utilized for these purposes, and, in the King's collections, the choicest specimens of Oriental porcelains as models and incentives he unremittingly per- sued his investigations and constantly improved in the de- sign, execution and finish of the goods he turned out. The King, recognizing the progress he was making, en-
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The present Royal Meissen factory This was really nothing new, red stoneware made in China and Japan being already known in Europe; but this was home-made, and although described as somewhat crude in form and finish, at once attracted attention. To improve its form, the King commissioned the famous court goldsmith, Irminger, to make patterns for the new ware, in which he embodied Barocque ideas, and with this differ- ence, and certain changes in the composition of the mass which Boettger introduced, he was able to produce an article differing broadly from the Chinese ware, and which for many years retained its popularity. One of the ingredients of the mass, the composition of which, like all the operations conducted by these early cera- mists, was a jealously-guarded secret, was iron-oxide, and the proportion in which it was present and the chemical changes it underwent in the process of firing, consequent on the temperature maintained, and whether the firing was done in a muffle or in open kiln, enabled the maker to vary its color, from copper red to deep brown, so that with dec- orations in simple relief, picked out with gold or painted couraged him in his efforts and foreseeing in the results something infinitely superior to the best efforts of the faience and earthenware factories of the times, resolved to take part in the work and incidently to share whatever credit and profit might result from it; under royal decree, dated January 23, 1710, he ordered the establishment, in Dresden, of a porcelain factory, which for convenience' sake was removed, a few months afterwards, to Meissen, on the banks of the Elbe, fifteen miles from the residence city, where it was installed in the practically abandoned and internally inadequate royal castle or fortress of Albrechts- burg. This castle, Boettger immediately began to put in shape for his work, the "Venus baston," which is still in existence and in a fair state of preservation This, then, was the birthplace, in Europe, of the porcelain industry and this the event so appropriately and happily celebrated recently in Meissen. As was to be expected, on account of the interest the reigning Saxon monarch had taken in the development of the industry, royalty took a conspicuous part in the cele-

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