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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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bone china
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The English form of porcelain, introduced by *Spode in the 1790s. Most 18C English porcelain, including *Chelsea, *Bow and *Worcester, was of the kind known as artificial or soft-paste porcelain. This was white clay with the addition of ground glass – an attempt to imitate the translucency of true porcelain, which is a mixture of kaolin and petuntse (the secret of porcelain was discovered in China in about the 8C and in Dresden in the early 18C).
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This artificial porcelain was improved at Bow in about 1750 by the addition of white bone ash, a technique soon copied elsewhere. But true bone china depended on the secret of porcelain reaching England (it was first made here in Plymouth in 1768). It was to this genuine hard-paste porcelain that Spode added bone ash, thus achieving the version of bone china which later became the standard porcelain of the English factories.
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