12.1.5 Early Porcelain Development in Europe

Florence

As early as 1565 AD Francesco de Medici, who became the Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1574 to 1587 AD, set up an experimental pottery in the casino of San Marco in Florence to produce “Medici” porcelain. Francesco was passionately interested in technology and actively involved in the scientific experimentation carried out in the court workshops.  In 1575 AD the Venetian ambassador reported Francesco “had found a way of making “Indian” porcelain equalling its quality of transparency, hardness, lightness and delicacy”, having produced a translucent “soft-paste” porcelain. Two formulae are reported, one entailing fritting sand and saltpetre, grinding and mixing with marine salt, soda ash, plaster of Paris and alum. This mixture was again fritted and mixed with clay and plaster. The second formula uses a mixture of white-firing clay from Vicenza, powdered feldspar, calcium phosphate and Wollastonite (CaSiO3) with quartz (white sand). Apparently he had help from a Levantine that is reflected in the high-silica body (73%), aspects of decoration and glaze that also contained calcium phosphate. This indicates the use of Ottoman Islamic techniques incorporating calcined (roasted) bones to make an opaque white glaze. This type of body was also similar to the 12^th century Egyptian clay and glaze mixture. The resultant ware was translucent but slightly glassy and the decoration was usually underglaze blue or manganese red. However, a few were decorated in the majolica style and could easily be confused with majolica. Production ceased in 1587 AD on the death of Francisco. It is thought that in 1590 the collection of Medici porcelain numbered some 1,100 pieces, but only some 60 remain today. There was a gap of some 100 years before such a soft-paste porcelain reappeared in France, Italy and Britain.

Medici, Florence, soft-paste
porcelain ewer, 1575-87
- source  Metropolitan Museum

France

Before the discovery of the secret of porcelain manufacture at Meissen, near Dresden, in the first decade of the 18^th century, imports by the East India Companies tried to meet the insatiable European appetite for this precious material. Interestingly, one of the reasons the Chinese started to export a lot of porcelain is because very light, very valuable cargo such as tea would need the ships to be loaded with ballast, so porcelain was useful as it was relatively heavy and had a good resale value. It was often packed in loose tea in small cases. It is estimated that between 1604 and 1656 AD the Dutch imported over 3 million pieces of porcelain. The record for a Dutch ship appears to be 300,000 teacups, 80,000 coffee cups, 2,000 bowls, 1,658 bottles and 187 chamber pots. In the 1700’s ships typically carried 100 tons of tea and 10 tons of porcelain, and Sweden alone imported 11 million items of porcelain between 1750 and 1775 AD. The pressure to redress this trade imbalance was clearly very high.

The voyage of the French East India Company’s vessel, Amphitrite, from Canton in August 1700 AD carrying great quantities of Chinese goods, including 93 cases of porcelain, brought French art lovers the first shop window for these goods in France. Increasing numbers of the French elite now had “cabinets of curiosities”, cabinets and display cases that were increasingly turned over to Chinese rarities, particularly porcelain. Philip Hainhofer, a wealthy trader in Augsburg, Germany, invented them early in the 17th century. During the 17^th century these expanded from single display cases to whole rooms, with pieces of oriental porcelain displayed on tables, shelves, consoles and chimney breasts, as the number imported increased.