I will be in the Dresden area later this
year and would like to know if there are
any nearby (within 75km) towns which have worthwhile porcelain or lace manufacturers or shops.

Plauen, the lace center, is southwest of Dresden. Unsure of mileage but is not far. Selb is the porcelain town, possibly 125km southwest. Wait for Ingo to reply-he can steer you in the right direction. (literally !) Now that you know the names of the towns you can go to Mappy.com or Viamichelin.com & get the directions/mileage. Have visited/shopped both places but don't have a specific shop name.

auntgrapes

Thanks for the info. Already took
notes.

ingo is gone for a week...if you repost this next sunday and include the word dresden in the title...he will answer you quickly...
seiffen is a town sw of dresden in the mountains which is the center for wooden toy and wooden decorations for germany...it is worth a short visit if you are in the area...

rhkkmk

Thanks for the input. Already noted it in my pad. I am basically looking for
this type of input about small towns.
Thanks again!

ilgo,

while Ingo is apparently on vacation, I will try to jump in by mentioning the town of Meissen, which has one of Germany's most famous (and most expensive) porcellain factories.
Meissen is only some 27 km to the North West of Dresden, on the River Elbe.

hsv

Gosh you guys are great!

Im taking all this down.

Thanks again!

Thanks to HSV I found this thread.

There is a very good porcelain manufacture in Freital, only a couple km southwest of Dresden (easily accessible by public transportation).

It is called Sächsische Porzellan-Manufaktur Dresden GmbH. Address is Carl-Thieme-Str. 16
01705 Freital
Tel: (03 51) 64 71 - 30

No homepage available, sorry. This one is cheaper than Meissen (which is definitely more famous). There are shops in Dresden e.g. in the Hilton hotel for products of both manufactures.

For Meissen porcelain you can go to Meissen where they have a shop with "second quality" pieces - cheaper than first quality, and only experts will see the difference. This shop is located right on the market square in Meissen.

For lace go to Plauen, as auntgrapes wrote. On the other hand, shops in Dresden (and Seiffen e.g.) sell these too.

Ingo