January, 1911 
A teapot of Boettger ware 
brations of the 200th anniversary. The King distributed 
among the officials and veteran employees of the works, a 
number of orders and other personal distinctions, alike 
commemorative of the event and in recognition of the 
faithful and efficient services, while the festal programme 
carried out was at once appropriate and highly interesting. 
In the morning of June 6, 1910, in the great court of the 
works, there was a festal performance; at noon divine 
service in the city church; later a banquet in the Albrechts- 
burg for the dignitaries and in the Burgkeller for other 
guests, general social intercourse, reception of the King 
and royal family, greeting of the King at the place of fes- 
tivities, and artistic representation by members of the 
court; and final general conviviality, concert, choral 
music, dancing, etc. 
But to resume the thread of our story of the rise and 
progress of the famous establishment, to which, after 200 
years, the world still looks as academically connected with 
the rise and progress of one of its favorite arts, Boettger, 
who occupies in his relation to the development of the 
Saxon porcelain industry a position comparably only with 
that held in France by Bernard Palissey or in England by 
Josiah Wedgewood, was installed, with Mining-Councillor 
Nehmitz as his associate, as director of the Royal Por- 
celain Works at Meissen, an office he continued to hold 
until his decease in 1719. 
For some time, the manufacture of the redstone ware 
chiefly occupied his attention, and here were turned out 
many creditable specimens of his work, including mugs, 
bowls, tea and coffee pots, cups and saucers, knife-handles, 
figures and some more pretentious articles in the shape of 
large vases. But the production of this ware, successful 
as it proved and remunerative as it was to his royal patron, 
Saucer of Boettger ware 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS II 
A cup of Boettger ware A sugar basin of Boettger ware 
did not satisfy him. Having frankly acknowledged his lack 
of knowledge, in regard to gold making, he was allowed to 
continue his researches into the manufacture of porcelain, 
and they were finally rewarded with a considerable measure 
of success. Towards the close of 1709 or the beginning of 
1710, he had produced his first real porcelain specimens, 
crude, it is true, in form, but having the delicacy of sub- 
stance and the semi-translucent quality characteristic of 
the finest Oriental porcelain and the attainment of which 
had been, for so many centuries, the despair of the Euro- 
pean potters. In 1713 he produced his first fired goods, 
with underglaze decoration, and in 1715 followed his first 
hard porcelain. 
Very soon, the original Boettger redstone ware, gave 
way to the really artistic products the new process made 
possible and on the development of which, the fame of 
Meissen, as the Royal Porcelain Factory rests. The 
most artistic Oriental models were at first closely followed 
in style and effect, if not in many instances actually copied 
and so successfully that it was and is impossible to dis- 
tinguish, without the closest scrutiny, between choice speci- 
mens of Meissen ware of this period and the finest pro- 
ductions of Oriental potteries. Fine table services, orna- 
ments and purely artistic creations won fame for the royal 
potteries on the Elbe under Boettger’s direction, although 
the commercial results of the enterprise were decidedly 
handicapped by the constant demands made upon the 
establishment by the royal founder, who imposed upon 
it the most exorbitant commissions for the ornamentation 
of his residences, presentations to friends and allies, etc. 
At this time some of the choicest and most unique 
specimens of Meissen ware originated, mostly in response 
to royal commands and some of the leading plastic and 
A bird (Toucan) of Boettger ware 
Eighteenth Century porcelain 
A brace of falcons (kestrels) 
