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history of porcelain |
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Porcelain is the hardest of all ceramic products, and though this gives it many practical applications in science and electronics, it is primarily known as the best material available for fine vases, figurines and other decorations.
Table settings known as “China” are made of porcelain, and are referred to as such because porcelain was first fired in China over 1,000 years ago. |
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Porcelain took longer to develop than conventional ceramics mainly due to the extremely high temperatures needed to fire its ingredients. The ground mixture of kaolin and petuntse (the latter found only in China) must be heated to a minimum of 1250 degrees Celsius, and sometimes as high as 1450 degrees. While the petuntse melts to form a natural glass, the kaolin remains resistant to heat even at those temperatures, allowing the item to hold its shape. When the two fuse together, porcelain is born.
Though porcelain was likely discovered during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), it was the emperors of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that truly developed the craft. During those years, royal factories were built for the sole purpose of creating porcelain decorations for the royal palaces. While the techniques for manufacturing porcelain eventually spread to China and Korea by the 1100s and to Europe by the 1500s, Chinese porcelain remained the benchmark by which all else was measured.
In its heyday, over one million people were engaged in the creation of porcelain in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen, which was established by the emperor as the imperial capital of porcelain. In letters sent to Europe in the early 1700s, Jesuit missionary Pere d'Entrecolles described the city as having over 3,000 kilns for firing porcelain. The porcelain boom in China finally ended with the downfall of the emperor in 1912 and the subsequent closing of the kilns.
Collectors still regard many porcelain vases and bowls made during the half-millennium of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1912) as best porcelain every made. The blue and white under-glaze with overlaid enamel colors perfected in the Ming dynasty, and the variety of colors and patters developed in the Qing Dynasty were highly sought after in Europe. Though moderately expensive in China, the shipping costs meant that only the very, very wealthy could afford “Chinaware” in Europe.
To counter its high cost, European artisans tried to emulate the Chinese creations on their own. Although they were unable to fully duplicate the quality of Chinese porcelain, they were able to make their own version using different mixtures of clay and kaolin to create what is called “soft-paste” porcelain.
Though purists consider soft-paste a lesser form of porcelain, it has many merits of its own that make it preferred by some collectors. With a creamy (rather than white) tone, it generally blends well with colors giving it a silky tone which appeals to many.
The third type of porcelain is “Bone China,” which was discovered in England around 1750. In Bone China, burned animal bone is added to the kaolin and petuntse (imported from China), making a porcelain harder than soft-paste, but still not as durable as the original. Almost exclusively manufactured in England, the bone ash gives Bone China more translucence than the others. |
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