European hard-glazed porcelain was invented in 1708-09 by Johann Friedrich Böttger and Walter Ehrenfried von Tschirnhaus in Meissen. Porcelain is a ceramic product composed of kaolin and feldspar with other substances. The mass sinters when fired and becomes absolutely impermeable. In the 18th century the whiteness of porcelain was highly-valued as a criterion for purity and quality. It greatly enhanced the brilliance of every kind of painted decoration. In the 19th century the white surfaces were predominately used as background for painting and were completely covered by decoration or coloured glaze.

 

Faience is earthenware with porous body, coated with a concealing stannic-oxide glaze to make it impermeable. Faience articles were first made about 500 BC in Persia. The production technique spread with the Islamic culture to Moorish Spain. Then over Mallorca (Majolika) to Italy and in 16th to northern Europe, here - after the Italian city of Faenza - it was called "Faience". In the 17-18th centuries over eighty manufacturers emerged in Germany, the first in Frankfurt and Hanau.