Carnation fruit saucer

Bone china

Bone china is a type of porcelain body first used in Britain in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is a critical part. It is characterised by extreme whiteness, strength and translucency. carnation fruit saucer may be an example of this procedure.

The first use of bone ash in ceramics is credited to Thomas Frye in the mid eighteenth century in which he used it to make a kind of soft-paste porcelain. In As the 18th century drew to a close, Josiah Spode continued with further developments, and subsequently popularised it, by combining it with china clay, kaolin and China stone to compete with the imported Oriental porcelain.

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

The production of bone china consistently employs a 2 stage firing where the initial "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280°C (2336°F) giving a translucent product and then it is glost, or glaze, fired at a lower setting under 1080°C (1976°F). carnation fruit saucer is probably produced using this method.

Soft-paste porcelain

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

Its origin dates from the first attempts by European potters to replicate Chinese porcelain by using combinations of china clay and ground-up glass or frit; lime and soapstone were known to have also been added in some formulations. As these early compounds were prone to high pyroplastic deformation, or slumping in the oven at raised temperature, they were uneconomic to manufacture. Compositions were later produced based on quartz, nepheline syenite, feldspars, kaolin 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Hard-paste porcelain is a hard, dense ceramic that was originally made from a composition of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at very high temperature. It was first manufactured in China around the 9th century.

The secret of its manufacture was unknown in Europe until the early eighteenth century, when Böttger of Meissen, Germany discovered the formula. Despite attempts to keep it secret, the process spread to other German ceramic factories and in time became widely known throughout the length and breadth of Europe.

Hard-paste porcelain is known to be fired at a range of temperatures to manufacture a myriad of unique end results. Depending on the firing process, hard-paste porcelain can be made to resemble earthenware or stoneware. But generally, it is not necessary to use hard-paste porcelain for such lower temperature ceramics. Hard-paste porcelain can be employed to create porcelain bisque, a hard crystalline product fired at extremely high temperatures in a pressure controlled environment. This technique produces a semiopaque bright white ceramic. Unlike other bisque ceramics, porcelain bisque is almost inpenetrable by water, making it unnecessary to glaze the body before decorating. Manufacturers such as Lladro, Precious Moments and Hummel make use of hard-paste porcelain simply for this reason, this could include carnation fruit saucer.