Ann's Porcelain

PORCELAIN - A FINE ART

Porcelain is an ancient Chinese art form dating from 618 A.D., the T'ang Dynasty. Its formula for the clay body was a jealously guarded secret for centuries. When Marco Polo returned to Europe from the Far East in 1295 with this beautiful ware royalty and the wealthy alike began collecting. They often met the ships as they came into port so as to have first pick of the precious cargo. At the same time the quest to learn the secret of its composition began. The procedure was slow and arduous, proving to be a fruitless pursuit.

Augustus the Strong, of Saxony, was such a ravenous collector that he soon used up all the monies in the state treasury. He imprisoned the alchemist, Botteger, so that he could find the formula for turning lead into gold. After many failures, he eventually did nearly as well - he discovered the formula for porcelain.

According to the kiln records, European porcelain was born on January 15, 1708. Workers at the Meissen factory were held prisoner and the total formula was divided among three men. Yet within a year or two factories were sprouting up all over Europe for porcelain manufacture. The names of Meissen, Dresden (Germany), Limoges, Servres (France), Staffordshire, Dalton (England), Balleek (Ireland) are still well known

Porcelain can be distringuished from other ceramic ware by its smoothness, whiteness and translucency. There are some colored porcelain clays produced, e.g. Wedgewood. Porcelain is hard and can withstand the cut of a steel bladed knife. It is non-porous even in a bisque (unglazed) state and it is suitable for holding liquids of all kinds. Fired at 2400 degreesF to take from greenware to bisque, the glaze fire is nearly the same temperature. The mineral based colors used for painting, as well as the decorative materials such as lusters, gold, silver and enamels for dimension, are fired at approximately 1200 degreesF.

There is hardly a porcelain artist alive that can resist painting a porcelain blank, using its own beauty in gleaming surface and form. The production of foreign porcelain art and recognition of the artists has been sustained over the last nearly three centuries. The U.S. has been slow in its recognition of porcelain as a fine art form. While the days of grandmother's pretty tea cups persist for the hobbyist, there are a growing number of serious artists painting not only flowers and fruit, but landscapes, animals, birds, geometric designs and portraits.

Porcelain art has proven itself in the marketplace, as it is has only appreciated in value over the years.

To learn more about porcelain throughout history and interesting sites for today's porcelain, check out the following websites: