Hard-paste porcelain

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Hard-paste porcelain is a hard ceramic that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at very high temperature. It was first made in China around the 9th century.

Historically, "hard-paste" referred to the Asian porcelains that had been prepared from the aforementioned raw materials. The secret of its manufacture was not known in Europe until 1709, when Böttger of Meissen, Germany discovered the formula. Despite attempts to keep it secret, the process spread to other German ceramic factories and eventually throughout Europe. Hard-paste, or just hard porcelain, now chiefly refers to formulatons prepared from mixtures of kaolin, feldspar and quartz. Other raw materials can also be used and these include porcelain and pottery stones. These are the same as petunse, but 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 degrees Celsius and the latter to around 1200 degrees Celsius.^[1]^[2] Depending on the raw materials and firing methods used, hard-paste porcelain can also resemble stoneware or earthenware. Hard-paste porcelain can be utilized to make porcelain bisque, a particularly hard 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 that use hard-paste porcelain for their products include Lladro, Hummel, and Precious Moments.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ Singer, F. and Singer, S.S., Industrial Ceramics (Chapman Hall, 1963) .
^ Rado, Paul, An Introduction To The Technology Of Pottery (Pergamon Press, 1988) .

[edit] 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