16 to whomever made the breakthrough first.12 A strong case for awarding the prize money to Köhler and Stöltzel was made in a submission to the King. Augustus the Strong eventually decreed that Köhler and Stöltzel should receive equal shares of the reward, but only once they had engaged in an exchange of ideas about their recipes. Each of them received just 300 Thalers in the end.13 Stöltzel continued work on improving the recipe once Köhler had died in 1723. He concluded by recommending separate “firings of blue ware”, thus adapting the firing process to the specific requirements of underglaze cobalt blue.14 The results of firing nevertheless continued to be unsatisfactory in many cases in the years that followed. The colour remained dull, uneven, burnt in places or else slate-grey, and the outlines were often blurred.15 Well-painted pieces gradually grew in number, but so did the rejects. Continuity was in short supply. Manufactory inspector Johann Melchior Steinbrück argued that the poor quality of the kilns was partly responsible.16 Not until the advent of feldspathic porcelain did the proportion of well-fired porcelains rise. Calcareous porcelain was clearly not suitable for underglaze decoration. A start was made on stocking blue ware in around 1728,17 once it had become possible to decorate any type of vessel in blue. Many of the items produced in 1730 for Augustus the Strong’s “porcelain castle”, his Japanese Palace, were painted in blue. In 1731, there no fewer than 2 The pattern’s outlines are pounced onto the porous surface with the aid of a perforated template made of metal foil, a small rag and charcoal.
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