Bunnykins deep sea diver

Bone china

Bone china is a type of porcelain body first produced in England in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is an important constituent. It is differentiated by extremely high whiteness, strength and translucency. bunnykins deep sea diver may be an example of this process.

The first use of bone ash in ceramics is associated with Thomas Frye in 1748 in which he used it to introduce a kind of soft-paste porcelain. In As the eighteenth century drew to a close, Josiah Spode carried on with further developments, and subsequently popularized it, by combining it with china clay, China stone and kaolin to compete with the imported Oriental porcelain.

The initial elementary formula of six parts bone ash, three and a half parts china clay, and four parts china stone is still the standard English body.

The production of bone china routinely uses a 2 stage firing process where the initial "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280