Hard-paste porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

is a ceramic

Ceramic

A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

 material that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse

Petuntse

Petuntse , also spelled petunse, is a historic term for a wide range of micaceous or feldspathic rocks. However, all will have been subject to geological decomposition processes that result in a material which, after processing, is suitable as an ingredient in some ceramic formulations...

 and kaolin fired at very high temperature. It was first made in China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 around the 9th century.

Historically, "hard-paste" referred to the Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n porcelains that had been prepared from the aforementioned raw materials. The secret of its manufacture was not known in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 until 1707, when Johann Friedrich Böttger

Johann Friedrich Böttger

Johann Friedrich Böttger was a Germanalchemist.He was generally acknowledged as the inventor of European porcelain although more recent sources ascribe this to Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus...

 of Meissen, Germany

Meissen

Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...

 discovered the formula. As the recipe was kept a trade secret by Böttger for his company, experiments continued elsewhere throughout Europe.
In 1712, the French Jesuit Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles

Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles

Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles was a French Jesuit priest, who discovered the Chinese technique of manufacturing "true" or hard-paste porcelain through his investigations in China at Jingdezhen with the help of Chinese Catholic converts between 1712 and 1722, during the rule of the Kangxi...

 described the Chinese process of manufacturing porcelain in his letters to Europe. Hard-paste, or just hard porcelain, now chiefly refers to formulations prepared from mixtures of kaolin, feldspar

Feldspar

Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....

 and quartz

Quartz

Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...

. Other raw materials can also be used and these include pottery stones, which historically were known as petunse although this name has long fallen out of use. Hard-paste porcelain is now differentiated from soft-paste porcelain mainly by the firing temperature, with the former being higher, to around 1400°C, and the latter to around 1200°C. Depending on the raw materials and firing methods used, hard-paste porcelain can also resemble stoneware

Stoneware

Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic ware with a fine texture. Stoneware is made from clay that is then fired in a kiln, whether by an artisan to make homeware, or in an industrial kiln for mass-produced or specialty products...

 or earthenware

Earthenware

Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects.-Types of earthenware:Although body formulations vary between countries and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15%...

. Hard-paste porcelain can be utilized to make porcelain bisque

Bisque (pottery)

Bisque porcelain is unglazed, white ceramic ware Examples include bisque dolls.Bisque also refers to "pottery that has been fired but not yet glazed...

, a type of porcelain. It is a translucent and bright, white ceramic. With it being almost impermeable to water it is unnecessary to glaze the body. Manufactures include Lladro

Lladró

Lladró is a Valencian Spanish company based in Tavernes Blanques, Valencia, that produces high quality porcelain figurines.-History:The company was founded in 1953 by three brothers, Juan, José and Vicente Lladró, in the village of Almàssera near Valencia...

, Hummel

Hummel figurines

Hummel figurines are a series of porcelain figurines based on the drawings of Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, O.S.F.-History:...

 and Royal Worcester

Royal Worcester

Royal Worcester is believed to be the oldest remaining English pottery brand still in existence today.-Overview:Royal Worcester is a British brand known for its history, provenance and classically English collections of porcelain...

.

External links

• Teapots.net. "The Invention of Hard-Paste Porcelain". History of Teapots. http://www.teapots.net/porcelain.html
• ThePotteries.org. "Hard paste porcelain". Types and Examples of Pottery. http://www.thepotteries.org/types/hardpaste.htm