How Is Bone China Produced?
Many connoisseurs of fine plate-ware eventually migrate to bone china for their dinner sets. Demanding significant prices for its production and tradition, bone china reflects an owner's choice for quality dinnerware and a fine eating experience, continuing a trend since the early 1800s.
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Invention
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In the pursuit of a product that provided an equal or better competition to traditional porcelain, bone china was developed by Josiah Spode about 1800. With his introduction of china plate-ware, Spode became the first name in bone china, which is still used today in available china dinner products.
Spode's original mix to create bone china was an alchemist formula of bone ash from organic bone waste (animal bone), china stone and china clay. This mix is still used today as the standard for English bone china.
Competition
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Many of the common names found in china plate-ware today were established as companies soon after Spode's invention. These competitors included such famous plate-ware names as Wedgwood, Davenport and Minton. Much of the competition established itself within the new plate-ware demand from 1810 to 1820.
The varied competition began to produce fluctuations in bone china color, including detail and ornaments. This created a boggling array of products that ran the spectrum of very good quality china to secondary, kitsch material.
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Benefits
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Early on, the benefits of bone china were apparent to potters. First, it was very easy to produce. The plate-ware could be manufactured in existing kiln ovens. Also, the finished product looked considerably better than other local porcelain plates.
Second, bone china provided a local supply of fine plate-ware that was not affected by the increasingly difficult trade routes with China, which drove up the cost of import-reliant plate-ware.
Finally, bone china provided a better product consistently than clay-ware or porcelain. It doesn't chip as easily, it continues to holds a brighter white color and clarity, and it is significantly harder than other modes of pottery.
Current Construction
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The current mix for bone china includes about 1/2 bone ash, which still comes from animal bone stock. The bone material is then completely cleaned and heated to an extremely high temperature to burn off remaining organic material besides the bone itself. It is then grounded into a powder to be used as the raw material in bone china.
Added to the mix then is 1/4 china clay and 1/4 china stone. The mixture is then heated twice, once above 1200 C and then above 1050 C.
Current Production
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Today, the majority of bone china is produced in England. In 1989, however, the first U.S. fine bone china factory was established in North Carolina by Lenox. That plant can deliver more than 15,000 pieces of china each day (in 2010).
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit fine china image by Gina Smith from Fotolia.com
