Porcelain
 

Porcelain; its composition and development

Porcelain is a type of ceramic substance made from kaolin (50%) feldspar (25%) and quartz (25%). Kaolin or white china clay is in fact a decomposed form of felspar and is appreciated because it remains white after firing. It can be fired at temperatures up to 1400°C which produces thorough vitrification and gives porcelain wares their characteristic translucid properties.

Porcelain was almost certainly produced in China as early as the T’ang period (AD 618-907) but it was not successfully copied in Europe until the early XVIIIth century at Meissen in Germany.

During the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, Chinese porcelain reached Europe via sea trade routes and from the Renaissance on, European potters and chemists strove to imitate it, eventually producing what is known as soft-paste porcelain.

Remarkable examples of both soft- and hard-paste porcelain ware can be seen at the Adrien Dubouché National Porcelain Museum in Limoges together with illustrations of how ceramics have evolved over the ages.

© Musée national Adrien Dubouché - RMN