Carnation tea cup

Bone china

Bone china is a type of porcelain body originally used in the United Kingdom in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is an important constituent. It is characterized by extreme whiteness, translucency and strength. carnation tea cup may be an example of this process.

The initial use of bone ash in ceramics is associated with Thomas Frye in in the late 1740s in which he used it to make a kind of soft-paste porcelain. In In the late 18th century, Josiah Spode continued with further developments, and consequently made it popular, by combining it with kaolin, China stone and china clay to compete with the imported Oriental porcelain.

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

Bone china production consistently makes use of a 2 stage firing process where the first "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280