What is Bone China?
When selecting tableware for your house, you have a number of choices: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. Among porcelain products, you’ve got basic porcelain, fine china and bone china. People have been making and using porcelain products for a very long time. Around the end of the 18th century, an Englishman named Josiah Spode developed a new formula for china that incorporated the use of calcined bone ash. Considered by most to be the finest of porcelain products, bone china is stronger and more translucent than the basic porcelain and “fine” varieties. There are four main processes involved in creating china: Clay making Mold making Glazing Decorating The clay making process begins in the batch-house. Pulleys hoist giant metric-ton bags of raw materials from pallets located on the factory floor. They are raised up to a platform about a story high. The bags are then left to hover over enormous hoppers into which their contents will be emptied.
Many people here the term bone china but you would be surprised how many of them can actually define the term for you. Bone china is actually a type of porcelain. In 1800, Josiah Spode II created bone china by adding bone ash to the formula for porcelain. The result turned out to be the hardest, most durable porcelain ever made available. Bone china is the toughest of porcelains and does indeed contain bones. A piece of bone china contains at least 25% of bone ash, and this compound not only adds strength and white color to the china, but also makes it translucent. Not totally transparent, but enough for the light to pass through it. The bone ash comes from the pulverized and burned bones of animals. The ingredients for bone china are bone ash, kaolin and petuntse. Bone china is by far the largest ingredient with the remainder being included. The result of all three combined produces an ivory white color that is both resilient and extremely durable. The value of bone china varies by ma
The story of bone china starts with Josiah Spode. Spode was born in 1733 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The county of Staffordshire is world-renowned for its ceramics and porcelain. Josiah passed his factory on to his son, Josiah Spode II (1754-1827). Josiah II apprenticed in his fathers factory and opened a London gallery to showcase his fathers porcelain. Porcelain is an ancient ceramic material perfected by the Chinese. There are examples of porcelain that date back to the 7th century. Porcelain is commonly called china, as this is where the material originated. There are three types of porcelain, hard paste, soft paste and bone china. In 1800, Josiah Spode II created bone china by adding bone ash to the formula for porcelain. The result was the hardest, most durable porcelain available. Bone china is the toughest of porcelains and does indeed contain bones. Bone ash makes up the greatest part of the formula for bone china, with the balance of the formula containing kaol
Whether it is used seldom or often, the “good china” is usually a home’s favored treasure store. “Good china” is usually bone china, meaning that bone ash is used in the manufacture. In the United States, all bone china must have at least 25 percent bone ash to carry the name. Most bone china has about 50 percent bone ash, along with 25 percent china stone and 25 percent kaolin clay. Lenox, Inc. is the only manufacturer of bone china in the U.S., but bone china is made all over the world. Some china is true porcelain, but bone china has the advantage of being lighter and stronger than porcelain. It is also more expensive. Making bone china involves several steps. The clays and bone ash must be mixed together with water, then the slurry is formed into large cylinders that are sliced and formed with plaster molds into dishes, bowls, cups and other pieces. The pieces are taken from the molds, given a rough cleaning to remove the excess clay and any lumps or other imperfections, then fired
The story of bone china starts with Josiah Spode. Spode was born in 1733 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The county of Staffordshire is world-renowned for its ceramics and porcelain. When he was 16 or 17, young Josiah apprenticed with Thomas Whieldon, one of the area’s finest potters. Spode worked for other potters and also co-owned factories with other potters until 1767 when he formed the Spode factory. This factory was wholly owned by him by 1776 and that factory remains in operation in the same spot today. It is the oldest porcelain factory to remain in business at the same site.
