Aware of my fondness for hobby ceramics, Tim passed this book over to me during our recent visit. Even taking my personal interest into account, I was somewhat dubious...a nonfiction book about the origins of porcelain in the Western world? I thought this might be taking even Tim's legendary interest in everything a bit far.
I should know my brother better than that by now. Open this book and allow the author to plunge you into a thrilling and harrowing tale of intrigue, adventure, suspense, and industrial espionage in a way that proves once and for all that truth really can be stranger than fiction. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a gifted, ambitious and reckless practitioner of the inexact science of alchemy (a form of chemistry) boasts that he's a hair away from coming up with the arcanum for the much-coveted Philosopher's Stone - that is, the formula for making gold from base metal. Sounds ridiculous? It was a dream bordering on obsession for many Western Europeans at this time, especially monarchs; and when the alchemist Johann Frederick Böttger boasts just a little too loudly, he abruptly finds himself the wretched captive of Augustus the Strong, the greedy and ambitious King of Poland and Elector of Saxony.
The extravagant king lavished a free hand on the objects of his desire, which included (besides numerous mistresses) costly jewels and artifacts and rich costumes. But such unrestrained spending cannot go on forever, and Augustus seeks a ready solution in the unfortunate Böttger. Now a helpless mouse in the clutches of a cruel and hungry cat whose patience will not last forever, Böttger is ordered to produce the arcanum for the Philosopher's Stone in exchange for this freedom...and, ultimately, to preserve his own life.
Of course we know that there is no formula for making gold. There was a new material at the time, however, which came to be viewed as almost as valuable and equally elusive in its production...the translucent Chinese ceramic known as porcelain. A new and beautiful material from the Orient, porcelain rapidly became as coveted as gold for the world of prestige, power and wealth which it represented.
Amid the high suspense of his quest for the Philosopher's Stone, Böttger stumbles onto a new quest...the arcanum for making porcelain. As the king's impatience grows along with the amount of money which he invests in his captive's enterprises (which continue to produce no results), so does Böttger's fear of execution. Knowing Augustus' lust for porcelain (which is nearly as strong as the king's lust for gold), Böttger endeavors to save his own life by shifting the focus of his experiments to the more viable one of making porcelain...a decision which ultimately leads to a revolutionary success and the ultimate invention of a new, beautiful and utilitarian art form.
Every home nowadays contains in some form the results of Böttger's labor. Who would ever have guessed that such a fascinating and engrossing story lies behind these objects we take utterly for granted? Gleeson proves a skillful storyteller in her account of the invention of European porcelain and the founding of the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory in Dresden, Germany. An educational story about something you very likely haven't given much thought to before, which yet includes all the elements of a complex and exciting story. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.
February 2000
