Two soldiers shaking hands 1761–64 Kelsterbach Pottery and Porcelain Manufactory Germany witnessed a growing number of porcelain factories in different regions of the country during the mid-eighteenth century, and the circumstances of their founding often had much in common. Most of the new porcelain factories were created due to the interest of an aristocratic patron, and they relied on the financial subsidies provided by that patron to varying degrees. Typically, the technical expertise required to produce porcelain was supplied by potters who had learned their trade at another factory prior

Two soldiers shaking hands 1761–64 Kelsterbach Pottery and Porcelain Manufactory Germany witnessed a growing number of porcelain factories in different regions of the country during the mid-eighteenth century, and the circumstances of their founding often had much in common. Most of the new porcelain factories were created due to the interest of an aristocratic patron, and they relied on the financial subsidies provided by that patron to varying degrees. Typically, the technical expertise required to produce porcelain was supplied by potters who had learned their trade at another factory prior to their arrival, and workers were commonly hired away from other concerns to staff the new enterprise. The production of the factory often reflected the taste of the patron who founded it, and frequently the factory floundered financially when the patron died. All of these circumstances applied to the Kelsterbach factory, which had its roots quite commonly in the production of faience and which struggled financially from its inception.[1] It appears a faience factory was established in Königstädten in 1758 after receiving a charter that same year from Landgrave Ludwig VIII von Hessen- Darmstadt (1691–1768), in whose domain Königstädten was located. However, the factory moved to the nearby town of Kelsterbach later that year after a change of ownership. The factory’s faience production never became commercially viable, and in 1761 the Landgrave assumed ownership just as porcelain production became the factory’s sole appears that the requisite technical knowledge at Kelsterbach was provided by Christian Daniel Busch (German, 1722–1790), who had been employed at Meissen both as a painter and as a developer of enamel colors. Busch’s career typifies the itinerant nature of many workers in ceramic factories in the eighteenth century, because he left Meissen to work at factories in Vienna, Munich, Künersberg, and Sèvres before arriving at Kelsterbach in 17

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