How to Identify Slip Cast Porcelain
Porcelain is a beautiful ceramic that has been used for centuries -- for use in the finest china -- to every day tableware. Identifying this type of pottery is easy, when you know what to look for. Although telling the difference between true pure porcelain and the many other diluted formulas that make-up cheaper product is difficult, unless dissected under a microscope, identifying slip cast porcelain is an easy task. Knowing how may make shopping for a European heirloom piece easier.
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Instructions
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Look at the piece. The outside of porcelain traditionally will be white, unless it has been dyed a different color. Because of the characteristics of true porcelain, the primary clay has no time to pick up oxides that change the color of the slip. If you shine a light through it, you should see some sort of translucency. According to Mark Warren, an artist specializing in slip cast porcelain, this is one telling factor of this fine pottery. On the exterior of the piece will be two lines, like a seam. On very fine pieces, this line will be practically invisible, but it will be there. This comes from where the mold was broken apart after the high temperature firing process.
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Look on the inside of the piece. This will be smooth and uniform all around the piece. After the slip has been poured into the mold, it will set for several minutes and then the excess is poured out leaving the smooth interior of the greenware. Again,uniformity will be a telling mark of a piece being slip cast.
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Break the dish; but only in theory. Porcelain is an extremely fine clay, that is found in many of your more detailed pottery. Although one could use a heavier clay, such as stoneware for throwing on the wheel, or any number of clay mixtures, the closer one gets to a true porcelain, the more delicate and fragile the piece appears to become. Mr. Warren states that should porcelain break, the affect would be close to that of shattering glass, compared to it's heavier cousin stoneware, which would chip but not shatter.
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References
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