File:American homes and gardens (1911) (18149548272).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar81911newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
January, 1911 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 9 culture. One of the most enthusiastic of these connoisseurs and collectors was August II, King of Saxony and of Po- land. He is chronicled as importing these articles from the East in fabulous quantities; certain it is, that in his castles and palaces, he surrounded himself, regardless of expense, with the choicest specimens of the potter's art. It was, indeed, to his interest in ceramics that is due the discovery in Europe of the art of making porcelain, and its establishment in the Occident on a commercial scale, re- cently celebrated as the two hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the royal porcelain works at Meissen. With the celebration of this establishment of the famous porce- lain works, from which the secret was afterwards carried to others, it was necessary to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the perfection or re-invention in Europe the baser metals into gold, and in the course of his re- searches, was in the habit of combining all sorts of ele- ments, minerals especially, and accustomed to employ in his operations, such high temperatures as the use of the retort, crucible and alembic made possible. Bearing in mind that his subsequent operations in search of a porce- lain composition, were wholly gropings in the dark, and that he had no real scientific knowledge of the materials he employed, the value of this early experience of Boettger will be recognized without difficulty. As an apothecary's apprentice, he established a reputation as a visionary stu- dent, a ne'er-do-well dabbler in things outside of his busi- ness, and he enhanced it by his boasting of his knowledge of the gold making processes. This was brought to the ears of the Saxon monarch, who being, thanks to his costly
Text Appearing After Image:
The old Albrechtsburg, the seat of the Royal porcelain works from 1710 to 1863 of the art of making porcelain by Johann Friedrich Boett- ger, born in 1682 at Schleiz, Saxony, and bound appren- tice in 1696 to Apothecary Zorn, in Berlin. Thus the celebration bore a double significance. Boettger was by turns pharmacist, alchemist and potter, and while the combinations of the three callings may now-a- days sound somewhat incongruous, there is really nothing remarkable about it when the conditions at that time preva- lent in Europe are considered. The pharmacist—apothe- cary was his title in those times—was the only person pos- sessing the least practical knowledge of drugs and chem- icals; the alchemist, regarded as an uncanny individual and feared, and ofttimes persecuted as a practitioner of the "black arts," was constantly dabbling in these materials in the hope of discovering the "arcanum," the philosophers' stone, the elixir of life, or some means of transmitting art tastes, and for other reasons in an advanced state of impecuniosity, conceived the idea that a successful gold- maker would be a welcome addition to his establishment. About the same time Boettger had decided to transfer the scene of his activity to Wittenberg, in the Saxon territory, and although the Prussian King objected strenuously to the loss of a subject in whom might be vested such important possibilities, the subject of our story moved over to Sax- ony, a troop of cavalry being sent to guarantee him safe conduct, by his new protector. He was installed on his arrival in Dresden in the "gold house," a chemical lab- oratory attached to the royal castle in that city and en- joined to lose no time in turning out the gold, of which his royal master had such urgent need. Here he remained from 1701 to 1702, when he was transferred to the castle of the sovereign, Prince Anton Egon von Furstenberg, still

Note About Images