Title Porcelain : a history from the heart of Europe / Suzanne L. Marchand

Published Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2020]

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Description 1 online resource (xxi, 501 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps Series Book collections on Project MUSE Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations and Tables -- Note on Currencies and Other Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Reinventing the Recipe -- Chapter 2. The Challenge of Wedgwood and the Rise of the Private Firm -- Chapter 3. Making, Marketing, and Consuming in the "Golden Age" -- Chapter 4. Surviving the Revolutions -- Chapter 5. The Discrete Charms of Biedermeier Porcelain -- Chapter 6. Of Capitalism and Cartels -- Chapter 7. Porcelain, the Wilhelmine Plastic -- Chapter 8. The Fragility of Interwar Porcelain -- Chapter 9. From Cold War Wonder to Contemporary White Elephant -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Image Credits -- Index Summary "This is a history of porcelain as a business and consumer product, from the eighteenth century to the present day. Many books have been written on Chinese porcelain as an exotic import from Asia, but this book tells the history of the Central European reinvention and mass production of the material. Porcelain was first invented in medieval China, but the evolution of what its first producers called "white gold" was set in motion by Saxon king Augustus the Strong. Augustus obsessed over owning a personal alchemist, Johann Böttger, whom he imprisoned in his castle, first to make gold, and when that failed, to make porcelain. Trained in chemistry by an apothecary, Böttger took advantage of the king's obsession with porcelain and eventually produced the first European ceramic vessels whose delicacy and strength resembled those of Asian imports. Augustus funded the creation of a Saxon royal manufactory, which became the famous Meissen factory, and which to this day stands for the highest quality in porcelain. By the time of Böttger's death in 1719, Meissen porcelain had become famous throughout Europe and the world, its wares in high demand by other monarchs and aristocratic consumers. Soon after the porcelain maker's death, his secret recipe was stolen, and dozens of Central European princes opened their own manufactories. Here, author Suzanne L. Marchand shows how the story of European porcelain is an intertwined history of the mercantile state policy that built these factories, the luxury trades that sustained them, the debates about what counted as "art," and the changes in consumer and material culture driving the business. Throughout the eighteenth century, porcelain production was an industry of competitive, mercantile production under royal ownership. By 1850, however, after only a few state-backed firms survived the financial crises of 1815-1830, the Central European porcelain industry had become the domain of mass producers and trademark forgers. Marchand then traces the story of Central European porcelain into the twentieth century, exploring the new challenges of cartelization, the rise of Japanese and Czech competition, and the impact of the two world wars, following several porcelain firms through the Nazi era and the Russian seizures of companies in the German East. At each point, Marchand uses the history of porcelain to link the businesses, and the states that helped sustain them, to the broader history of culture and consumption"-- Provided by publisher Analysis A Thirst for Empire Asian imports Asian porcelain Biedermeier Charlottenburg Chinese porcelain Delftware Edmund de Waal Erika Rappaport Frankfurt Kitchen Frederik the Great German history Hare with the Amber Eyes Imagining Consumers Janet Gleeson Leora Auslander Maria Theresa Ming porcelain, Kraak Paul Betts Regina Blaszczyk Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg Sophie Charlotte Taste and Power The Arcanum The Authority of Everyday Objects The White Road Westerweld Stoneware Wilhelmine plastic consumer culture consumerism earthenware faience faienceries luxury goods mass production mercantile state production mercantilism Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 30, 2020) Subject Porcelain industry -- Europe, Central -- History Porcelain industry -- History HISTORY / Social History Porcelain industry Porzellan Porzellanherstellung Central Europe Deutschland Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2019044746 ISBN 0691201986 9780691201986 0691182337 9780691182339

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