Albrechtsburg Albertinian line. In 1710 King Augustus II the Strong established the "Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Porcelain Manufactory" ("Königlich-Polnische und Kurfürstlich-Sächsische Porzellan-Manufaktur"), which was the first European hard-paste porcelain manufacture, at the castle under the supervision of Johann Friedrich Böttger. Meissen porcelain was produced at the Albrechtsburg until manufacturing moved to its present location in 1863. Albrechtsburg The Albrechtsburg is a Late Gothic castle that dominates the town centre of Meissen in the German state of Saxony. It stands on a hill above the river Elbe, adjacent to the Meissen Cathedral. In 929 King Henry I of Germany subdued the Slavic Glomacze
Soft-paste porcelain expensive to purchase. Attempts were made to imitate it from the 15th century onwards but its composition was little understood. Its translucency suggested that glass might be an ingredient, so many experiments combined clay with powdered glass (frit), including the porcelain made in Florence in the late 16th century under the patronage of the Medicis. In Venice there were experiments supposedly using opaque glass alone. German factories either made hard-paste from their foundation, like Meissen, Vienna, Ludwigsburg, Frankenthal and later factories, or obtained the secret and switched. France did in fact make hard-paste at Strasbourg in 1752-54, until Louis XV