The Zschopenthal Blue Colour Works (german: Blaufarbenwerk Zschopenthal) was a

paintworks Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

in the Ore Mountains 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 (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

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 () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...

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, porcelain ...

. 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 ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. The paintworks had its own jurisdiction and also its own school. In 1850 as a result of competition from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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 August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

) and father (

Kurt Alexander Winkler Kurt is a male given name of Germanic or Turkish origin. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. In Turkish, Kurt means "Wolf" and i ...

). 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 (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

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 downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

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