The Arcanum
Janet Gleeson
It all began with gold. Three centuries ago when this story begins there were two great secrets to which men of learning longed to find the key. The first was almost as old as civilization itself: the quest for the arcanum or secret formula for the philosopher’s stone, believed to have the power to turn base metal into gold and make men immortal. The second, less esoteric but equally desired, was the arcanum for making porcelain.
This is the story of how the process of making high grade porcelain—porcelain equal to the best made in China—was developed in Europe in the early years of the eighteenth century. It is the story of three men: Johann Frederick Böttger, an alchemist who searched for gold and found porcelain; Johann Gregor Herold, an artist who developed colors and patterns of unparalleled brilliance; and Johann Joachim Kaendler, a virtuoso sculptor. It is also the story of Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, whose excesses created a continuing need for the gold that Böttger claimed he would soon be able to make.
At age fourteen Böttger was apprenticed to an apothecary, but he spent all his spare time working at trying to transmute various metals into gold. At one point he actually held a demonstration which appeared to transmute silver into gold. The product of his demonstration actually was gold, he apparently having slipped some real gold into the crucible without anyone seeing it happen. When word reached King Augustus II of the demonstration he sent for Böttger, who fled when he realized that he would have to produce gold for the king. That did not please the king and soon Böttger was captured. Although Augustus spared Böttger’s life, the alchemist was a prisoner for the rest of his life. The king set up a laboratory for Böttger and set him to work to find a way to make gold.
Böttger, although he could not transmute base metals into gold, was a very knowledgeable chemist. As he worked he became acquainted with a nobleman named Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus, who was employed by the king as a councilor of court to locate mineral deposits in the kingdom and develop new manufacturing techniques. While he had been successful in several areas, the one industry in which Tschirnhaus wished to succeed was in the area of porcelain manufacture. He and Böttger became acquainted and Tschirnhaus was impressed by Böttger’s knowledge of chemistry. As time went on Augustus agreed that Böttger should also work with Tschirnhaus on the porcelain project as Chinese porcelain was literally as valuable as gold.
Böttger and Tschirnhaus were very successful and an interesting demonstration was held for the king. In mid–firing, a sagger (a clay box in which the porcelain was encased to protect it from the flames of the kiln) was removed from the kiln and opened, revealing a small teapot still glowing red from the heat of the kiln. “Böttger quickly stepped forward, picked up the pot with a pair of tongs and threw it into a nearby bucket of water.” According to one report, “the exposure to such extremes of temperature caused the submerged pot to effervesce and a loud explosion reverberated through the vault.” Böttger rolled up his sleeves and retrieved the pot and handed it to the king. The pot had remained intact although the glaze was imperfect. Böttger died on 13 March 1719 after coughing and writhing for nine hours. He was 37 years old.
In the meantime, the Austrian government decided that the City of Vienna needed a competing porcelain manufactory and several key employees were lured there from the Meissen Works (Augustus’ manufacturing facility). One of these was Samuel Stolzel.
About the time of Böttger’s death, Stolzel became disenchanted with the Vienna factory and pleaded with Augustus to allow him to come back to Meissen, to which the king agreed. To make sure the king realized that he was serious, as Stolzel left Vienna he not only indulged in very destructive acts of vandalism at the Vienna factory, but he also persuaded Johann Gregor Herold, their finest artist, to accompany him.
Herold was an outstanding artist whose decorated porcelain competed successfully with that from the Orient, but his major contribution was the development of colored glazes that would retain their brilliance through the high temperature glazing process. Herold’s goal was to become rich and powerful. He pursued this goal ruthlessly and did indeed become one of the most powerful men in the manufacture and decoration of the porcelain made under Augustus’ regime.
Johann Joachim Kaendler was a sculptor whose skills came to the attention of the king. The major question was whether he could solve the modeling problems at Meissen. By royal command he was hired temporarily to determine how he handled porcelain. In a matter of weeks he had his first success—a huge eagle two meters high with outspread wings.
I will leave it to the reader to find out how Herold and Kaendler fared until the secret of making such valuable porcelain was out and the king’s (by now Augustus III) monopoly was no more.