Meissen Red Jockey Bird The history of porcelain manufacturing in Europe begins in Meissen, Germany near Dresden, the cradle of European porcelain. Apart from the short-lived production of the Medici factory in Florence in the 1560\'s, Meissen was the first successful producer of hard-paste porcelain - or true porcelain - in Europe. Meissen\'s products, and those of its imitators, who came later, destroyed the supremacy of the oriental porcelain that had held a virtual monopoly in the world since Marco Polo opened the china trade in 1295. 
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