| The True Tale of How One Man's
Horse Enabled the Discovery of European Porcelain
As told by Joseph Marryat*
 We
are not told what kaolin Böttger employed in his first essays,
but the kaolin of Aue, the basis of Saxon porcelain, was discovered
by a singular chance. In 1711, John Schnorr, one of the richest
ironmasters of the Erzgebirge (Germany), when riding on horseback
near Aue, observed that his horse's feet stuck continually in a
soft, white earth, from which the animal could hardly extricate
them.
The general use of hair-powder at that time made it a considerable
object of commerce, and the idea immediately suggested itself to
Schnorr that this white earth might be employed as a.substitute
for wheat flour, which was then used in its composition. He carried
a specimen to Carlsfeld, and had a hair-powder prepared, which he
sold in great quantities at Dresden, Leipzig, and other places.
 Böttger
used it among others, but remarking on the unusual weight of the
powder, he inquired of his valet whence he had procured it. Having
ascertained that it was earthy, he tried it (as an ingredient in
his trials), and to his great joy found that he had at last gained
the material necessary for making white porcelain. The kaolin continued
to be known in commerce under the name of ‘Schnorrische weisse
Erde’ – Schnorr’s white earth. Its exportation
was forbidden under the severest penalty and it was carried to the
manufactory in sealed barrels by persons sworn to secrecy.
Böttger's discovery soon became the object of the most lively
jealousy, and it was equally natural that every means to obtain
the secret should be tried by other nations, as it was that the
Elector should take every precaution to keep it to himself. Strict
injunctions to secrecy were enjoined upon the workmen, not only
in regard to strangers, but also towards their comrades, but notwithstanding
this, even before Böttger's death, one of the foremen had
escaped from the manufactory and gone to Vienna, and from that city
the secret spread over Germany, and many rival establishments were
set on foot.
*Joseph Marryat, A History of Pottery
and Porcelain, Medieval and Modern, London, 1857.
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