Bunnykins hornpiper

Bone china

Bone china is a type of porcelain body initially produced in Great Britain in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is an essential part. It is characterised by extremely high whiteness, strength and translucency. bunnykins hornpiper may be an example of this procedure.

The initial use of bone ash in ceramics is credited to Thomas Frye in the mid eighteenth century in which he used it to develop a kind of soft-paste porcelain. In In the late eighteenth century, Josiah Spode undertook further developments, and duly popularized it, by combining it with china clay, China stone and kaolin to compete with the imported Oriental porcelain.

The original elemental recipe 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 consistently employs a two stage firing process where the first "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280