Zschopenthal Blue Colour Works
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Zschopenthal Blue Colour Works () was a
paintworks Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...
in the
Ore Mountains The Ore Mountains (, or ; ) lie along the Czech–German border, separating the historical regions of Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Saxony in Germany. The highest peaks are the Klínovec in the Czech Republic (German: ''Keilberg'') at ab ...
that manufactured blue glass paste. It is located in the village of Zschopenthal in the parish of Grünhainichen in the German state of
Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...
.


History

The paintworks at Zschopenthal had originally been founded in Annaberg. Difficulties in obtaining firewood motivated the co-owner, ''Bergrat'' Caspar Sigismund von Berbisdorf, in 1684 to move it to Zschopenthal. Von Berbisdorf already owned an iron
hammer mill A hammer mill, hammer forge or hammer works was a workshop in the pre-industrial era that was typically used to manufacture semi-finished, wrought iron products or, sometimes, finished agricultural or mining tools, or military weapons. The featur ...
and the necessary real estate in Zschopenthal. In 1689 a metal hammer mill is recorded, that manufactured stove tops. In 1692, this mill moved to Neunzehnhain. In 1687 the works began manufacturing blue cobalt colour paste, used for painting
porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...
and
ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
. According to tradition this was exported by von Berbisdorf to
Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
and
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
. The paintworks had its own jurisdiction and also its own school. In 1850 as a result of competition from
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and the introduction of coal-firing, the Zschopenthal factory was closed and the business merged with the factory in Pfannenstiel. The paintworks was run by three generations of the family of chemist,
Clemens Winkler Clemens Alexander Winkler (December 26, 1838 – October 8, 1904) was a German chemist who discovered the element germanium in 1886, solidifying Dmitri Mendeleev's theory of periodicity. Life Winkler was born in 1838 in Freiberg, Kingdom ...
: his great grandfather Christian Heinrich Winkler, grandfather ( August Fürchtegott Winkler) and father ( Kurt Alexander Winkler). In 1848 the Zschopau master weaver, Johann Gottlieb Wunderlich, bought the entire factory complex and built what was in its day a very modern weaving mill. The buildings of the former paintworks have been very largely preserved and have been maintained for several years to some degree as an industrial monument. The old industrial site consisted of the three-storey factory building with a
cross-vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Lau ...
on the ground floor, whose portal is marked with the year 1687, the
timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...
building with turrets, bell and weather vane from 1719, the stables and the massive, two-story mansion with a
hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...
.


Today

The tradition of blue colourmen has been maintained for a number of years by a group known as the ''Hüttenknappschaft Zschopenthal'', part of the Waldkirchen Local History Society (''Heimatverein Waldkirchen'').


Sources

* {{Authority control Defunct companies of Germany Mining in the Ore Mountains History of the Ore Mountains