Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-01-15

/ agents for the United States.
remember the name DOAN'S and
| take no substitute.
| ,F"nth century the University of I.e5nzio
-" ,n Ms classes here for time. From
i'lp tlli IHGi the ROYAL china manIlfactory
occupied the place. To-day. with the ev-
teptlOh OF part now used as a CONT nf
iuStl'e. the whole building is maintained
az state expense as an art monument
among thc princes of the sixteenth CEN
Jury VINO were famous as collectors Of
emma. N" most enthusiastic was Angus
tus the Strong. prince-elector OF Saxony
ana King of Poland. whose collection of
emma pottefies is still preserved in Dres-
uth. lt Is said that Augustus once gave
a regiment Of his troopers 10 rho t<intr M
ituSsld IN exchange for some UNIQUE.
vases. To this Prince came about In.
year lhg a young man AIMED John Fred
eric Bottcher. who pretended to have dis
covered the secret of Transmitting silver
M" G"id. me King promised him i'm
HthSt rewards If he would disclose M,
secret and. to make sure that he woIId
nov sell II elsew here, caused him to be i'm
lflSohtd IN Dresden under strict watch
IL was while pretending to make gold
lhat Bottcher. in experimenting with re-
lractorN earthS used for his crucibIp dis
covered that he had found the secret ,of
making china, He showed the King what
NJ had done and was allowed to establish
himself stiil under guard. in the Meissen
castle. This was in l705. His ware how
ever. WAS all brown. The discovery of
kaolin. with which white Transparent Chi.
ma Is made. was due to a happy accident.
one day BottcherS hairdreSser brought
with him as a powder for his masters wig
a htaNy white substance very different
from the rice flour i'm common USE Bott,
cher happened To notice it. and finding
that IL WAS taken from some fields near
the Elbt. he made some experiments with
It that. resulted in dishes actually finer
ana whter than the best china ware
AnotheT years hard work resulted in a
Elaze equal to any sehn on the ware from
Chinat tk
King Augustus was delighted TO get
china II he could not get gold and heaped
honors upon Bottcher, who became di-
rector of the factory at Meissen. with a
force of nearly one hundred men under
him. Too much prosperity was fatal
however. and Bottcher died in March.
lIl@ worn out by dissipation. plate
upon one of the houses in the castle
courtyard shows where he lived and died.
For the next twenty years the secret of
china making was 50 well kept that the
Meissen factory had a profitable monop-
oily of the business. Allowing for the diff
ference in the value of money. it is esti-
mated that in 1720 chnaware was ten
times as costly as ii is today. The bust
ness was conducted with care, a school
for the education of modellers and decor
ators was established. the best artists of
Dresden were made teachers. the art
treasures of the Dresden galleries. IA
nous even then, were copied, and the
fam" OF Dresden china began to spread
all over Europe.
In lSb' the business had grown to such
proportions that the MeiSsen castle was
not large enough. and the present build
inGS. about mile distant, were erected.
Visitors are admitted and shown through
the factory for Il small fee. The build
ingS are placed around a vast court of
several acres, with rows of neat houses
in the neighborhood for the Workpeople.
We first entered a vast showroom, where
We registered and paid our fee. While
waiting for Stiidc We could admire the
triumphS of chinu-mn king. with which
the hail WAS filled. \ sample of every ar
tcl" produced in the factory during the
Hast fifty years is to be seen here. from
the cheapest object, such rs the insulater
for IL telegraph pole. worth Il few cents.
to n chimney pi.c" ten feet high contain
ing hundreds of figures and thousands oil
colored flowers, and costing 5000 an
ahominatiun from an artistic point OF
view. but wonder of workmanship.
Then for an hour we followed our guide
through am endless series of big rooms
sample cup and saucer
through its history from IA lump OF clay
till il appeared in the Ware-roomS Tor
sale. Perhaps the most wonderful slght
was the furnaces, in which one hundred
"a china NJ "a fired at white