Amazing is the fact that once so familiar to us porcelain sets and figurines were valued almost more expensive than gold, and the court ladies wore jewelry made of this material. The thing is that for a whole millennium the secret of making white porcelain was known only to Chinese masters who produced it, starting from the VI century. Since XIII Chinese sets have been imported to Europe, where they conquered the hearts of the richest and most influential people. However, these costumes were incredibly expensive. Many monarchs of the world sought to open manufactories for the production of porcelain, but oriental craftsmen kept sacred secrets. In the course there were all kinds of tricks. But not a single spy has been able to pinpoint exactly what makes such precious material. There have been many attempts to experimentally recreate the Chinese technique, but the products received did not reach the sample in quality and whiteness. Until the Meissen porcelain appeared.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the King of Saxony Augustus Strong imprisoned Friedrich Böttger, a talented 19-year-old youth, who assured everyone that he had discovered the secret of making gold. The monarch demanded from the alchemist that he supply the state with precious metal. But thanks to the intervention of the scientist Ehrenfrid Walter von Chirnhauza, such an impracticable demand was replaced by the need to reveal the secret of Chinese porcelain. Like many great discoveries in the world, this was also largely an accident. The formula of the composition corresponding to the quality of the Chinese analogue was found. Only his color remained brown. And here again the proceeds came to the rescue, which was largely helped by the dishonesty of hairdressers. But it was so. Proydocha barber decided to save on the powder, which poured wigs and replaced it with white clay. Böttger also wore a wig, even in confinement, a fake powder somehow incredibly got into the composition for porcelain, and in the end such a carefully guarded Chinese secret was uncovered. So appeared the world famous Meissen porcelain. Now the great people of the whole world began to order the incredible beauty of things in Meissen. Among their admirers was Catherine II, the great empress of Russia.
Of course, Meissen porcelain underwent changes as the manufactory developed, its managers changed. At the initial stages, the influence of Asian culture was great, because Chinese porcelain products served as a model for production. The services depicted scenes of Chinese life, fire dragons, exotic birds. This period lasted until 1733. Later the Meissen Manufactory entered the "sculptural" period, when a significant proportion of the products were all kinds of figurines, sculptural compositions of small sizes. It was a completely new period in the history of Meissen porcelain, characterized by originality and individuality. Many porcelain factories of other countries borrowed ideas from Meissen.
Nowadays Meissen porcelain still does not lose popularity, despite the fact that it is not cheap at all. Of course, this is not the antique china, which was once invented by Friedrich Böttger and which is now stored in museums around the world. Modern masters, mostly, copy the products of the XVIII century, but, like three hundred years ago, all products are created and painted by hand, masters and artists put their warmth in them. For real collectors who extremely appreciate antiques, dishes from Meissen porcelain becomes a valuable lot at auctions, where its price reaches several tens of thousands of dollars.