Beswick topcat

Bone china

Bone china is a kind of porcelain body first used in the UK in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is a critical ingredient. It is distinguish by supreme whiteness, strength and translucency. beswick topcat may be an example of this procedure.

The initial use of bone ash in ceramics is assigned to Thomas Frye in 1748 in which he used it to make a type of soft-paste porcelain. In In the late 18th century, Josiah Spode undertook further developments, and duly popularised it, by mixing it with kaolin, china clay and China stone to compete with the imported Oriental porcelain.

The original basic recipe of six parts bone ash, three and a half parts china clay, and four parts china stone still remains the standard English body.

The production of bone china generally employs a two stage firing process where the first "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280°C (2336°F) giving a translucent product and then it is glaze, or glost, fired at a lower setting less than 1080°C (1976°F). beswick topcat is probably made using this process.

Soft-paste porcelain

Soft-paste porcelain is a type of porcelain and therefore a ceramic material.

Its history dates from the initial attempts by potters from Europe to clone Chinese porcelain by employing combinations of china clay and ground-up glass (also known as frit); soapstone and lime were also known to have been included in some concoctions. As these first compounds were prone to high pyroplastic collapse, or slumping in the oven at high temperature, they were uneconomic to manufacture. Formulations were later produced based on kaolin, quartz, feldspars, nepheline syenite and other feldspathic rocks. These were technically superior and continue in production to this day.

Hard-paste porcelain

Hard-paste porcelain is a hard, dense ceramic that was originally produced from a mixture of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at extremely high temperature. It was first manufactured in China in about the 9th century.

The secret of its manufacture was unknown in Europe until 1709, when Böttger of Meissen, Germany found the formula. Despite attempts to keep it secret, the process was taken up by other German ceramic potteries and eventually became used throughout Europe.

Hard-paste porcelain can be fired at a range of temperatures to manufacture many individual end results. Depending on the firing approach, hard-paste porcelain can be manufactured to resemble stoneware or earthenware. Most of the time however, it is unnecessary to make use of hard-paste porcelain for these lower temperature ceramics. Hard-paste porcelain can be utilized to make porcelain bisque, a hard crystalline product fired at very high temperatures in a pressure controlled environment. This method manufactures a translucid bright white ceramic. Unlike other bisque ceramics, porcelain bisque is almost inpenetrable by water, therefore it becomes unnecessary to glaze the body before decorating. Manufacturers such as Lladro, Precious Moments and Hummel utilize hard-paste porcelain just for this reason, this could include beswick topcat.