Andrew Duché of Savannah, GA was one of many 18th century devotees of the quest for a true ‘Western’ porcelain formula. In a May 27, 1738 trustee report by Georgia’s colonial secretary Colonel William Stevens, Duché proclaimed “something very curious, which may turn to good account for transporting, and he is making some tryal of the kinds of clay; a small tea-cup of which he showed me, when held against the light was very near transparent.”
Duché next announced he “had found out the true manner of making porcelain.” This would make him the first English-speaking person to achieve the quest. Duché more likely had simply stumbled upon Cherokee “unaker” clay, an American kaolin. He asked Georgia’s board of trustees for money, a 15 year patent, and more money.
A board member asked Duché to replicate the porcelain feat. Duché said he couldn’t until someone gave him money to build a kiln. An interesting conversation would have ensued had a potter been present. As it was, the obvious follow-up question was left hanging…
But Duche’s song and dance convinced Georgia’s founder James Oglethorpe. In 1743, Oglethorpe gave Duché a trip to England to lobby potential backers there. Duché failed on that count. But his visit helped spark a chain of events which led to the successful replication of porcelain by other quest devotees.
Duché’s visit inspired William Cookworthy, a London apothecary, to begin his own search. Cookworthy ultimately discovered Cornwall stone. Bow Pottery, near London, agreed to use unaker in their experiments. Bow made England’s first true porcelain the next year with Cherokee clay. And of course Josiah Wedgwood had his ear low enough to the ground to hear of Duché’s curious unaker clay. Soon Wedgwood agents would be trawling Georgia and the Carolina’s for this white gold’s source.
Back home, Duché convinced Isaac Parker to hire him. Isaac and his soon to be widowed wife Grace were attempting New England’s first stoneware production. Duché went to Cambridge, MA and did whatever it was that he sort of did. But his tenure there soon ended. He then faded to obscurity.
These were heady years when the scientific method was still not quite the fully defined, quantifiable process it is today. Anything was still possible. You could almost make a living at it.
The Art of the Potter. Diana and J. Garrison Stradling. Main Street-Universe Books/New York. 1977.
Early New England Potters and Their Wares. Lura Woodside Watkins. Harvard University Press/Cambridge MA. 1968.