Although China seems to be playing “catch-up” these days, in fact many great things came from China all throughout history. One of China’s best contributions has to be exquisite china tea sets. The Chinese were making beautiful porcelain items well before the Europeans even got started.

Eventually Chinese tea sets were brought to Europe, and almost immediately their popularity took off like wildfire. Craftsmen in Europe tried to copy the china tea sets to satisfy demand. As the tea sets became more and more popular, a solution had to be found.

Early on, European attempts were fruitless. Potters found the process to be very complicated. Moreover, there didnt seem to be any of the right clay around. The formula was still unclear, and the firing techniques were just something they couldnt master.

Then a young European alchemist came on the scene. Just 19 years old, Johann Bottger was given the impossible task of turning lead into gold for the kind of Poland. When he failed, he was jailed for a long time. But it was during this period that he started to study how to make porcelain.

It was with the support of a local leader who was simple obsessed with porcelain that Johann was able to get a hold of the clay he needed to produce truly great items. Now he had the materials, the only question was the technique.

It wasn’t long before the young alchemist got the formula just right. He jumped with joy and showed his creations to the Duke who had helped him. They then built a massive kiln that was almost exactly like those found in China.

In the beginning, they only made tiles and other small items. It was a start, but they still had a long way to go before they could match the beauty of the Chinese tea sets.

The rest of the mystery was solved by a Jesuit missionary in China. At about the same time of Johann Bottger’s experiments, Pere d’Entrecolles, a Jesuit priest, made his way into Chinas Jingdezhen, where the worlds best porcelain was made. Seven years later he published two voluminous letters that detailed the process of making Jingdezhen porcelain. And before long, factories making porcelain were established across Europe.

This may have been one of the earliest acts of industrial espionage!