English brocade covered sugar

Bone china

Bone china is a kind of porcelain body initially used in Britain in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is an important ingredient. It is distinguish by high whiteness, strength and translucency. english brocade covered sugar may be an example of this procedure.

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

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

Bone china production generally employs a 2 stage firing where the first "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280