Covered goblet

In his quest for the manufacture of white porcelain, Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719), the director of the Meissen factories near Dresden, searched other high fired, semi-vitreous wares, including finely-grained red Chinese stoneware. This clay body, which was known as Yixing ware, was produced since the sixteenth century at potteries located west of Shanghai. At the Meissen factories, this highly refined red stoneware was turned and polished by glass engravers who were brought to the workshops in 1708. This ware was only made from 1708 until about 1719, the year of Böttger's death.