bone china

bone china, variety of porcelain developed by English potters in the last half of the 18th and early 19th cent. The clay is tempered with phosphate of lime or bone ash. This innovation greatly increased the strength of the porcelain during and after firing.

See B. and T. Hughes, English Porcelain and Bone China, 1743–1850 (1955); H. Peter and N. Schiffer, China for America: Export Porcelain of the 18th and 19th Century (1979).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Arts and Crafts