(urth) Tang and Napoleon

[Stephen Hoy]

Another word or two about porcelain. It's formed from a hard clay paste
heated to an extreme temperature.

Dresden china lays claim to being the first European hard paste porcelain.
The story goes that an apothecary and his alchemist assistant reverse
engineered the secret of hard paste porcelain, a secret which had been the
exclusive province of the Middle Kingdom since the Tang dynasty. The
apothecary died before the Meissen factory went into production, so the
apothecary wound up with most of the personal profits. Wolfe doesn't mention
this factoid in Peace, but it's a curious background item not much different
from the Tilly/Smart partnership.