Porcelain facts for kids

Bowl with dragons, phoenixes, gourds, and characters for happiness. Late 1880s. Peabody Essex Museum

Demonstration of the translucent quality of porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating clay-type materials to high temperatures. It includes clay in the form of kaolinite.

There is a distinction between hard-paste porcelain, fired at 1400 degrees Celcius, and soft-paste porcelain, fired at 1200 degrees Celcius. Bone china is soft-paste porcelain made from bone ash and kaolinite.

The raw materials for porcelain are when mixed with water and form a plastic paste. The paste is worked to a required shape before firing in a kiln.

History

China

Porcelain originated in China, and 'china' is the common name of the product. By the Eastern Han Dynasty period (196–220 AD) glazed ceramic wares had developed into porcelain. Porcelain manufactured during the Tang Dynasty (618–906 AD) was exported to the Islamic world, where it was highly prized. Early porcelain of this type includes the tri-colour glazed porcelain, or sancai wares. Porcelain items in the sense that we know them today could be found in the Tang Dynasty, and archaeological finds have pushed the dates back to as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). By the Sui Dynasty (581–618) and Tang Dynasty (618–907), porcelain was widely produced.

Europe

Nymphenburg porcelain 1760/1765

In 1712, many of the Chinese porcelain secrets were revealed in Europe by the French Jesuit father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles, and published in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses de Chine par des missionnaires jésuites.

Germany

Early in the 16th century, Portuguese traders returned home with samples of kaolin clay, which they discovered in China to be essential in the production of porcelain wares. However, the Chinese techniques and composition used to manufacture porcelain were not yet fully understood.

In the German state of Saxony, the search concluded in 1708 when Ehrenfried von Tschirnhaus produced a hard, white, translucent type of porcelain with kaolin clay and alabaster, mined from a Saxon mine in Colditz. It was a closely guarded trade secret of the Saxon enterprise.

Von Tschirnhaus and his assistant Johann Friedrich Böttger were employed by Augustus the Strong and worked at Dresden and Meissen in Saxony. A workshop note records that the first specimen of hard, white and vitrified European porcelain was produced in 1708. At the time, the research was still being supervised by Tschirnhaus, but he died in October of that year. Böttger reported to Augustus in March 1709 that he could make porcelain. He usually gets the credit for the European discovery of porcelain.

France

Saint-Cloud soft porcelain bowl, with blue decoration under glaze, 1700/1710

The first important French soft-paste porcelain was made at the Saint-Cloud factory before 1702. Soft-paste factories were established at Chantilly in 1730 and at Mennecy in 1750. The Vincennes porcelain factory was established in 1740, and moved later to larger premises in Sèvres. in 1756. Vincennes soft-paste was whiter and more perfect than any of its French rivals, which put Vincennes/Sèvres porcelain in the leading position in France.

England

The first soft-paste in England was demonstrated by Thomas Briand to the Royal Society in 1742, and is believed to have been based on the Saint-Cloud formula. In 1749, Thomas Frye took out a patent on a porcelain containing bone ash. This was the first bone china, subsequently perfected by Josiah Spode.

Typical Wedgwood blue plate with white decor

In the twenty-five years after Briand's demonstration, half a dozen factories were founded in England to make soft-paste table-wares and figures. Some famous factories were:

Chelsea (1743)
Bristol porcelain (1748)
Royal Crown Derby (1750 or 1757)
Royal Worcester (1751)
Wedgwood (1759)
Spode (1767)

William Cookworthy discovered deposits of kaolin clay in Cornwall. This helped the development of porcelain and other whiteware ceramics in England. Cookworthy's factory at Plymouth, 1768, used kaolin clay and china stone. He made porcelain with a composition similar to the Chinese porcelains of the early 18th century.

Images for kids

Ming Dynasty Xuande archaic porcelain vase, early 15th century
Nymphenburg porcelain group modelled by Franz Anton Bustelli, 1756
Soft-paste porcelain swan tureen, 1752-6, Chelsea.
Flower centrepiece, 18th century, Spain.
Song Dynasty celadon porcelain with a fenghuang spout, 10th century, China.
Nabeshima ware dish with Hydrangeas, c. 1680-1720, Arita, Okawachi kilns, hard-paste porcelain with cobalt and enamels
Fonthill vase is the earliest Chinese porcelain object to have reached Europe. It was a Chinese gift for Louis the Great of Hungary in 1338.
Section of a letter from Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles about Chinese porcelain manufacturing techniques, 1712, re-published by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde in 1735.
Meissen plate from the huge and famous Swan Service, 1737-42
Chantilly porcelain, soft-paste, 1750-1760
Chinese Imperial Dish with Flowering Prunus, Famille Rose overglaze enamel, between 1723 and 1735
Porcelain insulator for medium-high voltage
Dakin Building, Brisbane, California using porcelain panels
Porcelain Chamber Pots from Vienna.
Spherical porcelain speakers from Austrian manufacturer mo°sound
Porcelain wares, such as those similar to these Yongle-era porcelain flasks, were often presented as trade goods during the 15th-century Chinese maritime expeditions. (British Museum)