10. Limbach.
We are apt to think that the mental force of Europe, down to very recent days quite into the last century, was directed almost wholly to the science and the practice of war. A great force certainly was so exhausted; but there was also, after the Renaissance (A. D. 1200 to 1300), a powerful stream turned upon literature, science, art, and religion. The alchemists, in their searchings for the secret of happiness—for the changing of baser things to gold—in their hunt for the fountain of perennial youth, were all chemists; and out of their (what we are pleased to term) “visionary notions” came many discoveries most curious and valuable to man.
When, in 1518, the Portuguese introduced fine Oriental porcelains into Europe, and, after them, the Dutch brought by ship-loads the beautiful productions of China and Japan, they were spread over Europe like water passing its dikes. Every king, every noble, every man of taste, was touched as by a fairy wand, and became inspired with a desire of possession, and also with a wish to create such articles of use and beauty. But the secrets of porcelain were locked in the souls of those keen Orientals, who would not part with their knowledge.
Still the chemists, the alchemists, of Europe were at work, peering with curious eyes into the composition of the most exquisite of fictile ware. The paste, the glaze, the ornament—all were of profound interest. Pottery of various kinds had been made in Europe from the earliest times, but no porcelain.
How could the superior European compete with or equal the inferior Mongol? A hard question.
For a long time it has been believed that the earliest European production of porcelain was in Saxony, about the years 1710 to 1715. But within a late period it has been found that porcelain—soft paste—was discovered and made in Florence as far back as 1575 to 1587, under the direction and patronage of Francesco I. (de’ Medici), the Grand-duke of Tuscany. No great quantities were made, and but few pieces of it exist now, of which we may treat hereafter.
The porcelain of Dresden is also called Saxon and Meissen; Dresden being the capital of Saxony, and Meissen the village, some twelve miles from Dresden, where the factories are established.
How were they established, and why?
Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, and afterward by election King of Poland, born in 1670, was a man of expensive habits and luxurious tastes. While a young man he visited Italy and other countries, always indulging these tastes by the purchase of pictures and other works of art. The beautiful porcelains of China and Japan, then rare in Europe, interested him, and he became of course a collector; and so he continued through his luxurious and troublesome life. That I cannot write; it may only be said that he combined with Peter the Great and with Denmark to drive out and keep out of his part of Europe that enterprising and indefatigable fighter, Charles XII. of Sweden, and was himself utterly routed and driven from Poland in 1704. He still retained the throne of Saxony, to which his son succeeded. This elector inherited the tastes and habits of his father, and continued to encourage and support the manufactory of porcelain at Meissen, until, entangling himself with Maria Theresa of Austria in an alliance against Frederick the Great, that restless and irresistible king overran his country, and for a time destroyed the production of porcelain in Saxony (A. D. 1756).