Friedrich Böttger and Claudius Innozenz du Paquier

The European invention of “chinaware” did not come until 1709, when Friedrich Böttger (1682–1719), an apothecary’s assistant and alchemist from Schleiz in Thuringia, succeeded after long and laborious experiments in producing the white ceramic body known as “Böttger porcelain.” This was in fact a limestone porcelain, which Böttger then developed by constantly refining the clay. In fact, the first pure white hard-paste porcelain was not produced at Meissen until 1720, shortly after Böttger’s death.
The most important immediate consequence of Böttger’s discoveries was the foundation in 1710 by the Saxon elector Friedrich August (1670–1733) – “Augustus the Strong” – of the Meissen Royal Porcelain Manufactory.
In 1718, espionage having led to the closely guarded Arcanum becoming known outside the bounds of Meissen, Vienna became the second European city to boast a porcelain manufactory, founded by an agent in the Imperial Council of War named Claudius Innozenz du Paquier (1679–1751). On May 27 of that year, Emperor Karl VI granted du Paquier a patent allowing him a twenty-year monopoly over porcelain production in the Habsburg Empire.
The generations that followed saw both Vienna and Meissen experiencing their full share of history’s changes and chances, their financial state likewise being affected by dramatic ups and downs. While porcelain production at the Meissen manufactory has continued uninterrupted to the present day, in 1864 the Vienna manufactory was forced to close down on account of stagnating income.
Porcelain production then ceased in Vienna until 1923, when the Vienna manufactory was reopened in the Augarten palace with the intention of resurrecting a tradition of porcelain-making long since regarded as lost. As well as old models, patterns, and decorative schemes being brought back into production, contemporary artists such as Josef Hoffmann, Franz von Zülow, and Ena Rottenberg were invited to contribute new forms and décors. There was a similar course of events at Meissen, where particularly around 1900 the manufactory was criticized for its lack of inventiveness and backward-looking attitudes to production. However, thanks to the recruitment of figures such as Henry van de Velde and Walter Schott and the spirit of improvisation of the brothers Julius Konrad Hentschel and Johannes Rudolf Hentschel, Meissen’s time-hallowed tradition was also given a new lease of life.