Botger： From the Alchemist to the Decipher of China Porcelain.

If you talk about the Maritime Silk Road, you may imagine that big ships are full of silk and sold all over the world. In fact, when it comes to hard currency in marine trade, it is porcelain.

In 1557, the Portuguese established a trading port in Macau, which started the colonization of this area and opened a new chapter in the export of China porcelain. Before that, China’s export porcelain was mainly controlled by Arabs. With the arrival of Portuguese, Europeans occupied a dominant position in China’s porcelain trade for the first time. When the exquisite porcelain was transported to the European court, these treasures from the East quickly attracted the attention of European nobles. In English, these porcelains are called "china-ware". Since then, the meaning of this word has changed further, and porcelains produced anywhere are called "china".

Although Europeans quickly ignited the enthusiasm of imitating porcelain, they were deeply troubled by the mystery of porcelain. Because of the translucent characteristics of porcelain, Europeans tried to mix glass powder into clay at that time in order to make exquisite porcelain. As a matter of fact, as early as in The Travels of Marco Polo, there were descriptions of porcelain recipes, but they were all whimsical and could not be copied. In 1570s, the Medici family successfully copied it for the first time in Florence, but it was difficult to compare with Chinese porcelain in hardness and quality. Many people believe that Yin Hongxu, a Catholic missionary in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, sent her observations in Jingdezhen and samples of kaolin and porcelain clay to Europe, so that Europeans finally learned the secret of porcelain making in China. But before Yin Hongxu, Europe had actually guessed the secret of porcelain. This story happened in Dresden, then the Principality of Saxony, and there is a legendary story behind this legendary discovery.

Medici family made porcelain in 1575-1587. As can be seen from the picture, they mainly imitated the style of blue and white porcelain, but the quality was not good.

The arrested alchemist

Meissen, Germany, has an unparalleled position in the history of European porcelain production, because it is the first place to start the high-quality imitation of China porcelain, and makes Meissen become the iconic brand of European porcelain. However, this critical moment in the history of European porcelain originated from an absurd case.

In 1700, John Friedrich Friedrich BTTGER (February 4, 1682-March 13, 1719), an 18-year-old genius, was arrested in Vittenburg and taken to Dresden. Augustus the Strong "elector of Saxony, ordered his arrest. The young man said that he had not committed any crime and should not be treated illegally. However, Augustus is hiding something from him. I don’t know where this elector heard that this young man is a gifted alchemist who can refine gold from some scrap metal and soil. Rumors of alchemy have reverberated in Europe for thousands of years. Although no one has really succeeded, most people have no doubt about the real existence of this technology. Therefore, Augustus asked the boy to make gold for him in Dresden, otherwise, he would be imprisoned for life.

A bust of Botger

The rumors that Augustus heard were not groundless. During his stay in Berlin, Botger followed the famous chemist Zorn in experiments. Chemists at that time often had a belief that there was a mysterious substance (Alltinktur) in the world that could extract a magic medicine that could cure all diseases, or that ordinary metals could be turned into precious gold through a special reagent (so-called Goldmachertinktur). It is said that Zon mastered the secret, and this mysterious formula was stolen by young Botger. Frederik 1 of Prussia also hoped Boteger would make gold for him, but because of the leak, Boteger was able to escape from Berlin. Unexpectedly, he went out of the wolf’s den and into the jaws of death, and fell into the hands of Augustus.

Mathematicians’ feelings about porcelain

He was imprisoned in a secret cabin and forced to carry out hopeless chemical experiments. Augustus sent another chemist to supervise Botger’s work, and this person was Ehrenfried Walther von tschirnhaus (April 10, 1651-October 11, 1708).

Compared with Botger, Zienhaus is already a renowned physicist, mathematician, chemist and medical scientist. Zienhouse studied mathematics, philosophy and medicine at Leiden University in the Netherlands in his early years, and served in the Dutch army from 1672 to 1673. He has made a lot of friends in European academic circles, not only having a good talk with the philosopher Spinoza in Holland, but also going to England to discuss mathematical problems with Isaac Newton. When he was in Paris, he met Leibniz, who had a bad relationship with Newton, became his lifelong friend and kept a lot of letters. Therefore, we have reason to think that he is more willing to believe that calculus is Leibniz’s masterpiece.

Zienhaus portrait

In addition to mathematics and philosophy, Zenhouse has been trying to reveal the secrets of China porcelain, and has achieved some breakthrough results, but he can’t repeat his experiments on a stable basis. He suggested to Botger that they study the secret recipe of porcelain together. He told Boteger that it was more feasible to find out the formula of China porcelain than alchemy, and if it could produce exquisite porcelain, it would be enough to give Augustus an account. In the European market at that time, the value of exquisite porcelain was not inferior to that of gold and silver, and even comparable to that of platinum. Although Botger himself was depressed, Zienhaus’s suggestion was accepted by Augustus. So, under the surveillance of a group of guards, Botger went to Mason to engage in porcelain experiments. Even when Swedish troops invaded the Principality of Saxony in 1706, they were looking for Botger. In order to keep this "big baby", Augustus transferred him to a distant black forest and imprisoned him during the war.

Explore the secret recipe of porcelain

Just after the war ended in September, 1707, Augustus personally ordered Botger to cooperate with Zienhouse to try to imitate China porcelain with some chemists and craftsmen in the laboratory in a castle in Dresden. At that time, Yin Hongxu had not written "China Ceramics", and this letter about the secrets of Jingdezhen porcelain did not reach Europe until 1712. So the main method at that time was to conduct repeated experiments on massive raw materials. In January 1708, they found the first workable formula. In this formula, the key step is to use kaolin and alabaster from Schneeberg. Augustus was very satisfied with this result, and even placed an important position in the Privy Council for the laboratory commander-in-chief, Zienhaus, and asked him to lead a porcelain production factory in the future. Zienhouse modestly replied to the king that he hoped to wait until all the experiments were finished and a way of mass production was found before accepting the king’s reward and position.

Unfortunately, Zienhaus died on October 11th of that year, and the whole process of porcelain decryption was handed over to the young Botger. What is puzzling is that the production of porcelain has been at a standstill. On March 20th, 1709, Melchior Steinbrück, the manager of the Zienhouse family business, signed an asset certificate with Boteger, and eight days later, Boteger suddenly informed King Augustus that he had invented the formula for making good porcelain.

In the early summer of 1709, the Dresden factory began to produce porcelain on a large scale and sold it at the Easter market in Leipzig in 1710. At the same time, Augustus also built a royal porcelain factory in Myson, which was operated remotely by Botger in Dresden to supervise the production of porcelain. It is worth noting that the early porcelain of Meissen is red in color, which is more similar to the purple sand (then called B?ttgersteinzeug, which is still used in German to represent purple sand), and then it is glazed and fired again, and decorated with silver carvings in the baroque style that was popular at that time.

Mason porcelain made in 1708-1710. It can be clearly seen from the picture that there is still a big gap in quality between white porcelain and later white porcelain.

Beginning in 1713, Botger further improved the process, which enabled Meissen’s factory to produce white porcelain, and mastered the glaze process in the following years, which became popular in Europe. Botger is deeply proud of his creation, and even thinks that his porcelain is superior to Chinese porcelain. In any case, in the European market, Saxony porcelain has become a symbol of new fashion and status.

In 2010, Germany issued a commemorative stamp commemorating the 300th anniversary of German porcelain making. The portrait selected for the stamp was drawn by Paul Kie?ling in Albrechtsburg in 1880, in which Botger was the one who operated the experiment in front, while Zienhaus was sitting in the back with a wig.

Although Botger, who created great wealth for Saxony, was rewarded with a mansion, there were still guards at the door and he failed to regain his freedom. Because Dagong was worried that he would leak the secret recipe of porcelain making, which would affect Saxony’s leading position in the European porcelain making industry. In 1714, Botger, who had been imprisoned for nearly fifteen years, was finally set free. Although the archduke was furious at Botger’s failure to find the secret of alchemy, Meissen’s exquisite porcelain won him great wealth. Sadly, however, this talented chemist died in 1719. This may be because he worked in a porcelain kiln for a long time without protective measures, and his health was fatally endangered. Some people say that he died of a killer sent by Augustus and put deadly poison in the wine he drank. It is said that shortly before his death, Botger wrote a poem to describe the misery of his life and the greed of the king:

The king longed for the fruit of gold,

But these weak hands are hard to make.

Only the crystallization of porphyry and borax,

Presented in front of the king’s throne as a sacrifice.

Yes, because of inner greed, these hands reached out to the big ship full of porcelain.

Portuge Memorial Statue in Dresden

Disputes over the right of invention

However, this story did not end with the death of Botger. His right to discover the secrets of porcelain-making was questioned after his death. Many people in the industry believe that Botger stole Zienhaus’s discovery that his room was stolen three days after Zienhaus’s death. People believe that Botger is the thief and stole the secret recipe written by Zenhouse. Others believe that Botger got the recipe only when Steinbrook arrived in Dresden to deal with Zienhaus’ relics together. For Steinbrook, after taking charge of the Wangs porcelain factory, Botger appointed him as supervisor and married his sister to him.

In addition to these strange events, there are also some witnesses who publicly accuse Botger of stealing the achievements of Zenhaus. Samuel St?lzel, a porcelain craftsman who defected from Myson to Vienna at that time, proved in 1719 that Zienhouse first discovered the secret of porcelain, but it was not further revised and made public because of his sudden death. In the same year, Caspar Bussius, secretary general of Meissen’s Handicraft Guild, also made it clear that the invention of porcelain should be attributed not to Botger, but to Zienhouse, because the former got the formula from the latter.

In 1731, Peter Mohrenthal, president of the Meissen Chamber of Commerce, wrote: "The whole of Saxony will remember von Zienhouse. As long as Meissen’s porcelain factory is unique outside China, his reputation will last forever … because Mr. Zienhouse was the first lucky person to find the secret of porcelain, and the controversial Mr. Bergent only developed in details later … Feng.

It is worth mentioning that Mason’s porcelain-making tradition still exists today. At the end of 18th century, the German civil war continued, and once the factory with 700 employees was moved to Berlin. After World War II, Germany, as a defeated country, was forced to send a lot of equipment to the Soviet Union as compensation. Due to the division of Germany, Meissen’s porcelain factory became a joint venture between the Soviet Union and the Democratic Republic of Germany (East Germany), and became the main source of foreign exchange for East Germany after 1950.

Therefore, no matter who was the first person to discover the secret of porcelain in Europe, Europeans nearly 300 years ago got a glimpse of the mysterious fate of China porcelain, which made European porcelain-making technology enter a new stage. The discovery of this secret has also had an impact on China, especially on the decline of many export-oriented porcelain factories in Jingdezhen, which is another story.

The glazed porcelain made by Maisen in the 1720s is obviously influenced by China porcelain, among which the "nondescript" Chinese style of painting is similar to the "Jesuit porcelain" made in China.