Meissen
Europe’s First Porcelain, Est. 1710
Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, founded Meissen in 1710 at Albrechtsburg Castle after his alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger produced the first European hard-paste porcelain. To stop imitators, the manufactory began marking its work with the crossed swords from the arms of Saxony in the early 1720s, and trained painters still apply them by hand in cobalt-blue underglaze. The Blue Onion pattern dates from around 1739 and remains one of the most copied designs in tableware.
