Dorchester tea cup

Bone china

Bone china is a kind of porcelain body initially produced in the UK in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is a major part. It is characterised by extremely high whiteness, strength and translucency. dorchester tea cup may be an example of this procedure.

The first use of bone ash in ceramics is associated with Thomas Frye in 1748 in which he used it to introduce a type of soft-paste porcelain. In Towards the end of the 18th century, Josiah Spode continued with further developments, and subsequently popularized 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, six parts bone ash, and three and a half parts china clay still remains the standard English body.

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