Dinnerware

Bone china

Bone china is a kind of porcelain body originally developed in England in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is an important ingredient. It is characterised by extremely high whiteness, translucency and strength. dinnerware may be an example of this process.

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

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

The manufacture of bone china generally makes use of a 2 stage firing where the first "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280°C (2336°F) giving a semiopaque product and then it is glost, or glaze, fired at a lower setting below 1080°C (1976°F). dinnerware is probably produced using this method.

Soft-paste porcelain

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

Its origin dates from the early endeavors by European potters to clone Chinese porcelain by using formulations of china clay and ground-up glass or frit; lime and soapstone were also known to have been used in some combinations. As these initial compounds suffered from high pyroplastic deformation, or slumping in the kiln at high temperature, they were not economical to manufacture. Mixtures were later used based on feldspars, nepheline syenite, quartz, kaolin and other feldspathic rocks. These were technically superior and continue in production to the present day.

Hard-paste porcelain

Hard-paste porcelain is a hard, dense ceramic that was initially made from a concoction 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 not known in Europe until the early 1700s, when Böttger of Meissen, Germany uncovered the formula. Regardless of attempts to keep it secret, the procedure spread to other German ceramic manufacturers and finally became widely known throughout Europe.

Hard-paste porcelain can be fired at a range of temperatures to manufacture a myriad of different end results. Depending on the firing approach, hard-paste porcelain can resemble stoneware or earthenware. But generally, it is not necessary to utilize hard-paste porcelain for such lower temperature ceramics. Hard-paste porcelain can be used to make porcelain bisque, a hard crystalline material fired at extremely high temperatures in a pressure controlled environment. This process produces a semitransparent bright white ceramic. Unlike other bisque ceramics, porcelain bisque is almost impermeable by water, therefore it becomes unnecessary to glaze the body before painting. Manufacturers such as Lladro, Hummel and Precious Moments make use of hard-paste porcelain simply for this reason, this could include dinnerware.