BULLETIN FOR THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY
Volume 49, 2024
Heimann, Robert B., Schmidt, Gert, and Ulbricht, Joachim, “The Invention of European Hard-Paste Porcelain: Did It Happen As Shaw Relates?,” Bull. Hist. Chem., 2024, 49, 99-110.
Abstract/Description: A series of experiments was conducted to confirm (or disprove) the claim of Simeon Ackroyd Shaw
(1785-1859) that the European hard-paste porcelain formula was accidentally discovered by J. F. Böttger during his involuntary sojourn at Königstein fortress between September 1706 and September 1707 when he fused alkali and alkaline earth fluxing salts in crucibles (possibly Hessian) in pursuit of his alchemistic gold making work in the service of the Saxon sovereign Friedrich August I. The outcome of the experiments rendered this contention unlikely, as no clear-cut results could be obtained. Hence, the jury is still out whether Shaw's claim is based on reality or else should be considered a mere figment of imagination.