Dresden and Porcelain

The first European porcelain was created in Dresden between 1707 and 1709 In 2019 Meissen and Dresden remind the 300th anniversary of the inventor of Europan porcelain

Release time : 2018-10-15 15:00:18

source : Dresden Marketing Board

porcelain stele stands on the Terrace in commemoration of Böttger.

Here, deep within the city's ramparts, August the Strong paid visits to the laboratory and it was here in late December 1707 that Böttger demonstrated for him the first successful test firing of white porcelain, where he then went on to perfect his efforts and officially presented his invention in 1709: “There are three qualities which especially quicken the human desire to covet a particular item and which could likely otherwise supersede its fundamental purpose,” Böttger proclaimed to August and the Saxon ministers. “First there is beauty, secondly rarity, and thirdly the functionality associated with both. These three qualities make an pleasing, valuable and necessary.” And Böttger then proudly added: “The vessels presented here are in possession of all three of these qualities.”

The vaults of the Dresden Fortress will be open to the public from the end of 2019 in the form of a new experience exhibition. In it the porcelain development in Dresden will be experienced. On the Brühl Terrace itself a porcelain stele reminds of Böttger.

The Foundation of Meissen Porcelain Manufactory

On 23 January 1710, August let the world know he had founded a porcelain factory in Dresden. But how could he safeguard the secret to its production? A location had to be found which was large enough to house the factory as well as living quarters for the future employees and secure enough that no one could come and go without permission. The perfect location was found during that same year of 1710 in the Albrechtsburg in nearby Meissen. Yet the monopoly didn’t last very long: former workers traded their knowledge for money. Porcelain factories were soon spreading like wildfire all across Europe: in Vienna in 1718, Sweden in 1726.

Today the Meißen Porcelain Factory along with its museum, special exhibitions and demonstration workshops