Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18349 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 283 pages

Customer Reviews

Outstanding - educational and gripping too
Janet Gleeson has written a corking book. Outstanding research, coupled with a very non-academic eye for a good story has resulted in this superb tale.

I bought this book on the strength of my (admittedly dubious) logic of 'It's such a stupid subject to write about, it MUST be good!'. And this is also the main example I use of my technique working!

Full of kidnapping, imprisonment, murder, intrigue, etc.etc.etc, this is also a fascinating insight into the lives of the aristocracy in 18th century Germany (and of the less fortunate too). Janet Glesson picks up on the significance of the famous 'recipe' for porcelain and explains it with an easy style.

It's one of those rare books - as easy and engrossing to read as a good novel, but superbly enlightening with it.

Buy it - you won't regret it.

History at its best
This is truly a very good book: informative, exciting, well-researched, well-written, you name it! I'm sure that it may seem odd to apply adjectives such as 'exciting' or 'fascinating' to a book on the invention of European porcelain (porcelain?!) if you weren't even remotely interested in the subject before (I would have thought so myself too) but as soon as I began to read this book it had me in its grip until the very last page.

This is at least as good as any fictional thriller, and if you've enjoyed 'Longitude' by Dava Sobel you'll love this one too.

An outstanding work of research
Janet Gleeeson takes us on an intricate and spell-binding tour of eighteen century Saxony as she breath-takingly relates the history of porcelain through three of its major players. The story of the aracanum produces a history lesson and detective novel in one as court misdemeanors and everyday life are revealed in all their glory. Everything is revaled from sexually transmitted diseases to the swapping of a vase for a dragoon of soldiers. Read this and enjoy the tutorial for the labour of love that it is.