Yorkshire rose coffee saucer demitasse

Bone china

Bone china is a kind of porcelain body originally developed in England in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is a major ingredient. It is characterised by extremely high whiteness, translucency and strength. yorkshire rose coffee saucer/demitasse may be an example of this process.

The first use of bone ash in ceramics is associated with Thomas Frye in the mid eighteenth century in which he used it to make a type of soft-paste porcelain. In As the eighteenth century drew to a close, Josiah Spode continued with further developments, and consequently made it popular, by mixing it with China stone, china clay and kaolin 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 is still the standard English body.

The production of bone china generally uses a two stage firing where the initial "biscuit" is fired without a glaze at 1280