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101-592: The Nantgarw China Works was a porcelain factory, later making other types of pottery , located in Nantgarw on the eastern bank of the Glamorganshire Canal , 8 miles (13 km) north of Cardiff in the River Taff valley, Glamorganshire , Wales . The factory made porcelain of very high quality, especially in the years from 1813–1814 and 1817–1820. Porcelain produced by Nantgarw

202-512: A kiln to permanently set their shapes, vitrify the body and the glaze. Porcelain is fired at a higher temperature than earthenware so that the body can vitrify and become non-porous. Many types of porcelain in the past have been fired twice or even three times, to allow decoration using less robust pigments in overglaze enamel . Porcelain was invented in China over a centuries-long development period beginning with "proto-porcelain" wares dating from

303-547: A patent on a porcelain containing bone ash. This was the first bone china , subsequently perfected by Josiah Spode . William Cookworthy discovered deposits of kaolin in Cornwall , and his factory at Plymouth , established in 1768, used kaolin and china stone to make hard-paste porcelain with a body composition similar to that of the Chinese porcelains of the early 18th century. But the great success of English ceramics in

404-486: A cup of cold water in, followed by some boiling water "and give it a shake round", to warm the pot before actually making the tea. Not surprisingly, Duesbury sought a formula that avoided this characteristic, and at some point after 1800 his successors introduced one closer to bone china . However, as other factories making this change found, the harder formulae did not take overglaze enamel paints as well, being both less attractive in appearance, and prone to crazing in

505-445: A firm texture unlike any other. The glaze often shows a fine satin-like pitting of the surface that helps to distinguish it from the brilliant shiny glaze of Mennecy, which is otherwise similar. The heavy build of the pieces is also characteristic and is saved from clumsiness by a finer sense of mass, revealed in the subtly graduated thickness of wall and a delicate shaping of edges." Louis Henry de Bourbon, prince de Condé established

606-492: A hard-paste firing temperature. They were called "soft paste" (after the French "pâte tendre") either because the material is softer in the kiln, and prone to "slump", or their firing temperatures are lower compared with hard-paste porcelain, or, more likely, because the finished products actually are far softer than hard-paste, and early versions were much easier to scratch or break, as well as being prone to shatter when hot liquid

707-601: A high resistance to corrosive chemicals and thermal shock . Porcelain has been described as being "completely vitrified, hard, impermeable (even before glazing), white or artificially coloured, translucent (except when of considerable thickness), and resonant". However, the term "porcelain" lacks a universal definition and has "been applied in an unsystematic fashion to substances of diverse kinds that have only certain surface-qualities in common". Traditionally, East Asia only classifies pottery into low-fired wares (earthenware) and high-fired wares (often translated as porcelain),

808-673: A loss until one day in April 1820, while Young was away in Bristol , the pair absconded to Coalport leaving behind them the lease to the pottery and several thousand pieces of undecorated porcelain in various stages of production ("in the biscuit and the white"). Young put the Nantgarw Pottery and its contents up for sale via public auction in October 1820, enabling him to buy out his minor partners, become sole proprietor and manage

909-403: A major European factories producing tableware, and later porcelain figurines. Eventually other factories opened: Gardner porcelain, Dulyovo (1832), Kuznetsovsky porcelain, Popovsky porcelain, and Gzhel . During the twentieth century, under Soviet governments, ceramics continued to be a popular artform, supported by the state, with an increasingly propagandist role. One artist, who worked at

1010-461: A mill adjoining the Cross Keys public house, in the village. The water wheel was powered by a leat running from the canal to the River Taff . The high temperature needed to produce perfect pieces made Billingsley soft paste method difficult to fire. The vast majority of the pieces warped or shattered in the firing process. The resources of the three associates soon ran out and the group approached

1111-547: A portrait painter, took out a patent on a porcelain containing bone ash. This was the first bone china ; only much later, around 1794, was the formula perfected by Josiah Spode , and then soon near-universally adopted in England. But bone ash was frequently an ingredient in English soft-paste. Remarkably little hard-paste porcelain has ever been made in England, and bone china remains the vast majority of English production to

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1212-448: A soft-paste factory on the grounds of his château de Chantilly in 1730; Chantilly porcelain continued to be made after his death in 1740. A soft-paste factory was opened at Mennecy by François Barbin in 1750. The Vincennes porcelain factory was established in 1740 under the supervision of Claude-Humbert Gérin, who had previously been employed at Chantilly. The factory moved to larger premises at Sèvres in 1756. A superior soft-paste

1313-561: A source of imperial pride. The Yongle emperor erected a white porcelain brick-faced pagoda at Nanjing , and an exceptionally smoothly glazed type of white porcelain is peculiar to his reign. Jingdezhen porcelain's fame came to a peak during the Qing dynasty. Although the Japanese elite were keen importers of Chinese porcelain from early on, they were not able to make their own until the arrival of Korean potters that were taken captive during

1414-596: A source of kaolin. In France kaolin was only found in Limousin in 1768, and Sèvres produced both types from 1769, before finally dropping soft-paste in 1804. In England there was a movement in a different direction, as Spode's formula for bone china , developed in the 1790s, was adopted by most other factories by about 1820. By that point little soft-paste porcelain was being made anywhere, and little hard-paste in England, with Nantgarw (to 1820) and Swansea in Wales among

1515-455: A type of porcelain . It is weaker than "true" hard-paste porcelain , and does not require either its high firing temperatures or special mineral ingredients. There are many types, using a range of materials. The material originated in the attempts by many European potters to replicate hard-paste Chinese export porcelain , especially in the 18th century, and the best versions match hard-paste in whiteness and translucency, but not in strength. But

1616-712: A week, until its closure in 1920, when cigarettes replaced such clay pipes. Collections of the historic wares can be seen at museums including the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, the Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw, Llanbedrog , Pwllheli , and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 1989 the semi-derelict site was bought by Taff-Ely County Borough Council, who still today own the site. After

1717-484: A wider range of colours. Like many earlier wares, modern porcelains are often biscuit -fired at around 1,000 °C (1,830 °F), coated with glaze and then sent for a second glaze -firing at a temperature of about 1,300 °C (2,370 °F) or greater. Another early method is "once-fired", where the glaze is applied to the unfired body and the two fired together in a single operation. In this process, "green" (unfired) ceramic wares are heated to high temperatures in

1818-520: Is a very common shape in Korea. Korean celadon comes in a variety of colors, from turquoise to putty . Additionally, in the late 13th century, the Inlay technique of expressing pigmented patterns by filling the hollow parts of pottery with white and red clay was frequently used. The main difference from those in China is that many specimens have inlay decoration under the glaze. Most Korean ceramics from

1919-424: Is assumed Young was acquainted with Billingsley through a mutual friend, and fellow earthenware decorator Thomas Pardoe , whom Billingsley had approached at Swansea's Cambrian Pottery , while seeking employment in 1807. Young's work across Glamorganshire as a surveyor may have put him in the position to advise Billingsley whilst still at Royal Worcester , of the suitability of the site at Nantgarw . Its proximity to

2020-416: Is determined by measuring the increase in content of water required to change a clay from a solid state bordering on the plastic, to a plastic state bordering on the liquid, though the term is also used less formally to describe the ease with which a clay may be worked. Clays used for porcelain are generally of lower plasticity than many other pottery clays. They wet very quickly, meaning that small changes in

2121-513: Is fraught with misconceptions", and various categories based on the analysis of the ingredients have been proposed instead. Some writers have proposed a "catch-all" category of "hybrid" porcelain, to include bone china and various "variant" bodies made at various times. This includes describing as "hybrid soft-paste porcelain" pieces made using kaolin but apparently not fired at a sufficiently high temperature to become true hard-paste, as with some 18th-century English and Italian pieces. At least in

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2222-470: Is frequently both glazed and decorated. Though definitions vary, porcelain can be divided into three main categories: hard-paste , soft-paste , and bone china . The categories differ in the composition of the body and the firing conditions. Porcelain slowly evolved in China and was finally achieved (depending on the definition used) at some point about 2,000 to 1,200 years ago. It slowly spread to other East Asian countries, then to Europe, and eventually to

2323-573: Is now a museum, and also a working pottery. In 2017 a limited quantity of porcelain was made there, using the original formula, as reconstructed. Established in November 1813, when artist and potter William Billingsley and his son-in-law Samuel Walker, a skilled technician, rented "Nantgarw House" on the eastern bank of the Glamorganshire Canal , eight miles north of Cardiff in the Taff Valley, Glamorganshire , Wales , and set about building

2424-487: Is now made worldwide, including in China. The English had read the letters of Jesuit missionary François Xavier d'Entrecolles , which described Chinese porcelain manufacturing secrets in detail. One writer has speculated that a misunderstanding of the text could possibly have been responsible for the first attempts to use bone-ash as an ingredient in English porcelain, although this is not supported by modern researchers and historians. Traditionally, English bone china

2525-802: The Baranovsky Porcelain Factory and at the Experimental Ceramic and Artistic Plant in Kyiv, was Oksana Zhnikrup , whose porcelain figures of the ballet and the circus were widely known. The pastes produced by combining clay and powdered glass ( frit ) were called Frittenporzellan in Germany and frita in Spain. In France they were known as pâte tendre and in England as "soft-paste". They appear to have been given this name because they do not easily retain their shape in

2626-530: The Islamic world , where they were highly prized. Eventually, porcelain and the expertise required to create it began to spread into other areas of East Asia. During the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE), artistry and production had reached new heights. The manufacture of porcelain became highly organised, and the dragon kilns excavated from this period could fire as many as 25,000 pieces at a time, and over 100,000 by

2727-525: The Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598) . They brought an improved type of kiln, and one of them spotted a source of porcelain clay near Arita , and before long several kilns had started in the region. At first their wares were similar to the cheaper and cruder Chinese porcelains with underglaze blue decoration that were already widely sold in Japan; this style was to continue for cheaper everyday wares until

2828-705: The Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) are of excellent decorative quality. It usually has a melon shape and is asymmetrical. Imported Chinese porcelains were held in such great esteem in Europe that in English china became a commonly used synonym for the Italian-derived porcelain . The first mention of porcelain in Europe is in Il Milione by Marco Polo in the 13th century. Apart from copying Chinese porcelain in faience ( tin glazed earthenware ),

2929-725: The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing . More recent examples include the Dakin Building in Brisbane, California and the Gulf Building in Houston, Texas, which when constructed in 1929 had a 21-metre-long (69 ft) porcelain logo on its exterior. Soft paste Soft-paste porcelain (sometimes simply " soft paste ", or " artificial porcelain ") is a type of ceramic material in pottery , usually accepted as

3030-530: The Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE). By the time of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) these early glazed ceramic wares had developed into porcelain, which Chinese defined as high-fired ware. By the late Sui dynasty (581–618 CE) and early Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), the now-standard requirements of whiteness and translucency had been achieved, in types such as Ding ware . The wares were already exported to

3131-563: The V&;A Museum , South Kensington , London in 1920; Bilingsley's recipe was found, but had never used in Billingsley's absence. In the second phase of production at Nantgarw, Young invested a further £1,100 in the pottery as well as mustering a further £1,000 from "ten gentlemen of the county". Billingsley and Walker continued to fire their porcelain, which by this stage was of the finest quality Billingsley had ever attained but still at

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3232-406: The glaze , or paint losses. Experts are prone to rhapsodize over both the feel and appearance of various versions of soft paste bodies from several factories, both when plain and painted, and prefer such pieces to those in later, more practical, types of porcelain body. According to one expert, with a background in chemistry, "The definition of porcelain and its soft-paste and hard-paste varieties

3333-629: The 15th century onwards but its composition was little understood. Its translucency suggested that glass might be an ingredient, so many experiments combined clay with powdered glass (frit), including the porcelain made in Florence in the late 16th century under the patronage of the Medicis . In Venice there were experiments supposedly using opaque glass alone. German factories either made hard-paste from their foundation, like Meissen, Vienna, Ludwigsburg , Frankenthal and later factories, or obtained

3434-615: The 18th century was based on soft-paste porcelain, and refined earthenwares such as creamware , which could compete with porcelain, and had devastated the faience industries of France and other continental countries by the end of the century. Most English porcelain from the late 18th century to the present is bone china. In the twenty-five years after Briand's demonstration, a number of factories were founded in England to make soft-paste tableware and figures: Porcelain has been used for electrical insulators since at least 1878, with another source reporting earlier use of porcelain insulators on

3535-604: The 20th century. Exports to Europe began around 1660, through the Chinese and the Dutch East India Company , the only Europeans allowed a trading presence. Chinese exports had been seriously disrupted by civil wars as the Ming dynasty fell apart, and the Japanese exports increased rapidly to fill the gap. At first the wares used European shapes and mostly Chinese decoration, as the Chinese had done, but gradually original Japanese styles developed. Nabeshima ware

3636-723: The British Government's Committee of Trade and Plantations (The Board of Trade), requesting a grant of £500, referring to the subsidy afforded to the famous Sèvres Porcelain Factory by the French Government. They were not successful, but one member of the committee, porcelain enthusiast Sir Joseph Banks , suggested his friend and potter Lewis Weston Dillwyn of the Cambrian Pottery of Swansea , Glamorganshire, should make an inspection and report on

3737-405: The Chinese". The typical blue-painted Saint-Cloud porcelain, says Honey, "is one of the most distinct and attractive of porcelains, and not the least part of its charm lies in the quality of the material itself. It is rarely of a pure white, but the warm yellowish or ivory tone of the best wares of the period is sympathetic and by no means a shortcoming; and while actually very soft and glassy, it has

3838-460: The European product, Chinese porcelain began with hard-paste, and it is common to regard all Chinese production as hard-paste, until bone china began to be made there in the 20th century. However, a classification of "Chinese soft-paste porcelain" is often recognised by museums and auction-houses, though its existence may be denied by others. It refers to pieces of Chinese porcelain, mostly from

3939-622: The French Jesuit father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles and soon published in the Lettres édifiantes et curieuses de Chine par des missionnaires jésuites . The secrets, which d'Entrecolles read about and witnessed in China, were now known and began seeing use in Europe. Von Tschirnhaus along with Johann Friedrich Böttger were employed by Augustus II , King of Poland and Elector of Saxony , who sponsored their work in Dresden and in

4040-604: The German state of Saxony , the search concluded in 1708 when Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus produced a hard, white, translucent type of porcelain specimen with a combination of ingredients, including kaolin and alabaster , mined from a Saxon mine in Colditz . It was a closely guarded trade secret of the Saxon enterprise. In 1712, many of the elaborate Chinese porcelain manufacturing secrets were revealed throughout Europe by

4141-475: The Glamorganshire Canal enabled heavy shipments of china clay , as well as the pottery's delicate porcelain wares to be smoothly transported to and from Cardiff docks by barges. With the pottery established, Billingsley sought to produce a soft paste porcelain. Nantgarw porcelain was made to Billingsley's secret formula. Bones, burnt and mixed with clay, were ground by miller David Jones in

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4242-591: The Hewelke factory, which only lasted from 1758 to 1763. The soft-paste Cozzi factory fared better, lasting from 1764 to 1812. The Le Nove factory produced from about 1752 to 1773, then was revived from 1781 to 1802. The first soft-paste in England was demonstrated by Thomas Briand to the Royal Society in 1742 and is believed to have been based on the Saint-Cloud formula. In 1749, Thomas Frye took out

4343-497: The Ming dynasty, and in 1598, Dutch merchants followed. Some porcelains were more highly valued than others in imperial China. The most valued types can be identified by their association with the court, either as tribute offerings, or as products of kilns under imperial supervision. Since the Yuan dynasty , the largest and best centre of production has made Jingdezhen porcelain . During the Ming dynasty, Jingdezhen porcelain had become

4444-492: The completion and sale of the stock; effectively salvaging the business. He invited his friend and former co-working artist from the Cambrian Pottery, Thomas Pardoe, to aid him with the completion and decoration of the salvaged porcelain. Young and Pardoe experimented to perfect a glaze for the biscuit ware, but were unable to add to Billingsley's stockpile of porcelain, having no access to his recipe. The final sales of

4545-820: The composition of the Meissen hard paste was changed, and the alabaster was replaced by feldspar and quartz , allowing the pieces to be fired at lower temperatures. Kaolinite, feldspar, and quartz (or other forms of silica ) continue to constitute the basic ingredients for most continental European hard-paste porcelains. Soft-paste porcelains date back to early attempts by European potters to replicate Chinese porcelain by using mixtures of clay and frit . Soapstone and lime are known to have been included in these compositions. These wares were not yet actual porcelain wares, as they were neither hard nor vitrified by firing kaolin clay at high temperatures. As these early formulations suffered from high pyroplastic deformation, or slumping in

4646-498: The content of water can produce large changes in workability. Thus, the range of water content within which these clays can be worked is very narrow and consequently must be carefully controlled. Porcelain can be made using all the shaping techniques for pottery. Biscuit porcelain is unglazed porcelain treated as a finished product, mostly for figures and sculpture. Unlike their lower-fired counterparts, porcelain wares do not need glazing to render them impermeable to liquids and for

4747-476: The craft into the native population in the Philippines , although oral literature from Cebu in the central Philippines have noted that porcelain were already being produced by the natives locally during the time of Cebu's early rulers, prior to the arrival of colonizers in the 16th century. Olive green glaze was introduced in the late Silla Dynasty . Most ceramics from Silla are generally leaf-shaped, which

4848-554: The end of the period. While Xing ware is regarded as among the greatest of the Tang dynasty porcelain, Ding ware became the premier porcelain of the Song dynasty. By the Ming dynasty , production of the finest wares for the court was concentrated in a single city, and Jingdezhen porcelain , originally owned by the imperial government, remains the centre of Chinese porcelain production. By

4949-498: The finished porcelain (sold between 1821 and 1822), paid Pardoe and his staff's salaries in arrears, but failed to recoup Young's total losses, leaving Young narrowly avoiding bankruptcy . Besides the porcelain decorated by Young, but predominantly by Pardoe at Nantgarw, many pieces were sold in the white to be decorated in London. These wares are known to have been decorated by Thomas Martin Randall (working for John Mortlock at

5050-430: The first half of the 18th century, that are less translucent than most Chinese porcelain and have a rather milky-white glaze, which is prone to crackling . Some regard it as essentially made from a hard-paste body that did not reach a sufficiently high firing temperature, or uses a different glaze formula. It takes underglaze cobalt blue painting especially well, which is one of the factors leading it to be identified as

5151-428: The frit based compositions and 1200 to 1250 °C for those using feldspars or nepheline syenites as the primary flux . The lower firing temperature gives artists and manufacturers some benefits, including a wider palette of colours for decoration and reduced fuel consumption. The body of soft-paste is more granular than hard-paste porcelain, less glass being formed in the firing process. A consistent problem

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5252-421: The kiln at high temperatures, they were difficult and uneconomic to use. Later formulations used kaolin (china clay), quartz, feldspars, nepheline syenite and other feldspathic rocks. Soft-paste porcelain with these ingredients was technically superior to the traditional soft-paste and these formulations remain in production. Soft-paste formulations containing little clay are not very plastic and shaping it on

5353-526: The kiln at high temperatures, they were uneconomic to produce and of low quality. Formulations were later developed based on kaolin with quartz, feldspars, nepheline syenite , or other feldspathic rocks. These are technically superior and continue to be produced. Soft-paste porcelains are fired at lower temperatures than hard-paste porcelains; therefore, these wares are generally less hard than hard-paste porcelains. Although originally developed in England in 1748 to compete with imported porcelain, bone china

5454-473: The kilns and ancillary equipment in its grounds, necessary to transform the building into a small porcelain pottery. Billingsley had been instrumental in the development of the porcelain recipe for Flight, Barr & Barr at Royal Worcester , he and Walker, had signed an agreement not to disclose their new porcelain recipe to a third party, but there was no clause preventing them from using that recipe themselves. They had left Worcester in secret and started

5555-477: The last factories making soft-paste. There were early attempts by European potters to replicate Chinese porcelain when its composition was little understood and its constituents were not widely available in the West. The earliest formulations were mixtures of clay and ground-up glass ( frit ). Soapstone (steatite) and lime are also known to have been included in some compositions. The first successful attempt

5656-423: The latter also including what Europeans call "stoneware", which is high-fired but not generally white or translucent. Terms such as "proto-porcelain", "porcellaneous", or "near-porcelain" may be used in cases where the ceramic body approaches whiteness and translucency. In 2021, the global market for porcelain tableware was estimated to be worth US$ 22.1 billion. Hard-paste porcelain was invented in China, and it

5757-502: The look and feel of the material can be highly attractive, and it can take painted decoration very well. The ingredients varied considerably, but always included clay , often ball clay , and often ground glass, bone ash , soapstone (steatite), flint , and quartz . They rarely included the key ingredients necessary for hard-paste, china clay including kaolin , or the English china stone , although some manufacturers included one or other of these, but failed to get their kilns up to

5858-425: The matter. Dillwyn made the inspection, observing that 90% of the porcelain was ruined in the firing, but was so impressed with the quality of the surviving pieces that he invited Billingsley and Walker to use his facilities at the Cambrian Pottery to improve their recipe and process. An annexe was built for porcelain production at the Cambrian Pottery, where Walker and Billingsley were based from late 1814. The recipe

5959-401: The most part are glazed for decorative purposes and to make them resistant to dirt and staining. Many types of glaze, such as the iron-containing glaze used on the celadon wares of Longquan , were designed specifically for their striking effects on porcelain. Porcelain often receives underglaze decoration using pigments that include cobalt oxide and copper, or overglaze enamels , allowing

6060-424: The past, some sources dealing with modern industrial chemistry and pottery production have made a completely different distinction between "hard porcelain" and "soft porcelain", by which all forms of pottery porcelain, including East Asian wares, are "soft porcelain". Chinese porcelain , which arrived in Europe before the 14th century, was much admired and expensive to purchase. Attempts were made to imitate it from

6161-480: The porcelain to a maximum of 1200 °C in an oxidising atmosphere, whereas reduction firing is standard practice at Chinese manufacturers. In 2018, a porcelain bushing insulator manufactured by NGK in Handa , Aichi Prefecture , Japan was certified as the world's largest ceramic structure by Guinness World Records . It is 11.3 m in height and 1.5 m in diameter. The global market for high-voltage insulators

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6262-415: The potter's wheel is difficult. Pastes with more clay (now more commonly referred to as "bodies"), such as electrical porcelain, are extremely plastic and can be shaped by methods such as jolleying and turning. The feldspathic formulations are, however, more resilient and suffer less pyroplastic deformation. Soft-paste is fired at lower temperatures than hard-paste porcelain, typically around 1100 °C for

6363-686: The present day. Recipes were closely guarded, as illustrated by the story of Robert Brown, a founding partner in the Lowestoft porcelain factory, who is said to have hidden in a barrel in Bow to observe the mixing of their porcelain. A partner in Longton Hall referred to "the Art, Secret or Mystery" of porcelain. In the fifteen years after Briand's demonstration, several factories were founded in England to make soft-paste table-wares and figures: Unlike

6464-442: The properties of the porcelain, such as ASTM C515. A porcelain tile has been defined as 'a ceramic mosaic tile or paver that is generally made by the dust-pressed method of a composition resulting in a tile that is dense, fine-grained, and smooth with sharply formed face, usually impervious and having colors of the porcelain type which are usually of a clear, luminous type or granular blend thereof.' Manufacturers are found across

6565-601: The rear, as explained below. The American China Manufactory (or Bonnin and Morris) in Philadelphia , America's first successful porcelain factory, also made soft-paste from about 1770–1772. Experiments at the Rouen manufactory produced the earliest soft-paste in France, when a 1673 patent was granted to Louis Poterat, but it seems that not much was made. An application for the renewal of the patent in 1694 stated, "the secret

6666-616: The research was still being supervised by Tschirnhaus; however, he died in October of that year. It was left to Böttger to report to Augustus in March 1709 that he could make porcelain. For this reason, credit for the European discovery of porcelain is traditionally ascribed to him rather than Tschirnhaus. The Meissen factory was established in 1710 after the development of a kiln and a glaze suitable for use with Böttger's porcelain, which required firing at temperatures of up to 1,400 °C (2,552 °F) to achieve translucence. Meissen porcelain

6767-508: The rest of the world. The European name, porcelain in English, comes from the old Italian porcellana ( cowrie shell ) because of its resemblance to the surface of the shell. Porcelain is also referred to as china or fine china in some English-speaking countries, as it was first seen in imports from China during the 17th century. Properties associated with porcelain include low permeability and elasticity ; considerable strength , hardness , whiteness, translucency , and resonance ; and

6868-518: The restoration of the kilns is being completed by the Welsh government . Porcelain The manufacturing process used for porcelain is similar to that used for earthenware and stoneware , the two other main types of pottery, although it can be more challenging to produce. It has usually been regarded as the most prestigious type of pottery due to its delicacy, strength, and high degree of whiteness. It

6969-490: The secret and switched. France did in fact make hard-paste at Strasbourg in 1752–1754, until Louis XV gave his own factory, Vincennes , a monopoly, at which point the factory moved to become the Frankenthal operation. Early factories in France, England, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland and other countries made soft-paste, the switch to hard-paste generally coming after 1750, with France and England rather in

7070-510: The soft-paste Medici porcelain in 16th-century Florence was the first real European attempt to reproduce it, with little success. Early in the 16th century, Portuguese traders returned home with samples of kaolin, which they discovered in China to be essential in the production of porcelain wares. However, the Chinese techniques and composition used to manufacture porcelain were not yet fully understood. Countless experiments to produce porcelain had unpredictable results and met with failure. In

7171-613: The start of archaeological excavation and restoration of its kilns and buildings, the site opened it to the public two years later as the Nantgarw China Works and Museum . Closed at the end of 2008 due to budget cuts at Rhondda Cynon Taff council, the Nantgarw Chinaworks Museum was reopened during the week in November 2010 by two artists. The museum is currently (February 2016) used for artists' studios, exhibitions, art classes and special events, and

7272-412: The start of the 19th century, and as Japan opened to trade in the second half, exports expanded hugely and quality generally declined. Much traditional porcelain continues to replicate older methods of production and styles, and there are several modern industrial manufacturers. By the early 1900s, Filipino porcelain artisans working in Japanese porcelain centres for much of their lives, later on introduced

7373-509: The telegraph line between Frankfurt and Berlin. It is widely used for insulators in electrical power transmission system due to its high stability of electrical, mechanical and thermal properties even in harsh environments. A body for electrical porcelain typically contains varying proportions of ball clay, kaolin, feldspar, quartz, calcined alumina and calcined bauxite. A variety of secondary materials can also be used, such as binders which burn off during firing. UK manufacturers typically fired

7474-486: The time of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 CE), porcelain wares were being exported to Asia and Europe. Some of the most well-known Chinese porcelain art styles arrived in Europe during this era, such as the coveted " blue-and-white " wares. The Ming dynasty controlled much of the porcelain trade, which was expanded to Asia, Africa and Europe via the Silk Road . In 1517, Portuguese merchants began direct trade by sea with

7575-665: The time), John Latham , William Peg and probably Matthew Colclough . Some Nantgarw porcelain is identified with the mark "NANTGARW" impressed, often with the initials C.W. (for China Works) underneath. The word "NANTGARW" in red script is also seen on some of the finer specimens. In 1833 William Henry Pardoe, son of Thomas Pardoe, took over the vacant Nantgarw Pottery and began manufacturing stoneware bottles and brown glazed earthenware known as Rockingham ware . He also began manufacturing clay tobacco pipes, many of which were exported to Ireland. The business continued under Pardoe's descendants, and at its peak produced around 10,000 pipes

7676-483: The town of Meissen . Tschirnhaus had a wide knowledge of science and had been involved in the European quest to perfect porcelain manufacture when, in 1705, Böttger was appointed to assist him in this task. Böttger had originally been trained as a pharmacist; after he turned to alchemical research, he claimed to have known the secret of transmuting dross into gold, which attracted the attention of Augustus. Imprisoned by Augustus as an incentive to hasten his research, Böttger

7777-605: The unfired material is "body"; for example, when buying materials a potter might order an amount of porcelain body from a vendor. The composition of porcelain is highly variable, but the clay mineral kaolinite is often a raw material. Other raw materials can include feldspar, ball clay , glass, bone ash , steatite , quartz, petuntse and alabaster . The clays used are often described as being long or short, depending on their plasticity . Long clays are cohesive (sticky) and have high plasticity; short clays are less cohesive and have lower plasticity. In soil mechanics , plasticity

7878-579: The venture at Nantgarw with only £250 to invest in the project between them. By January 1814, the Quaker entrepreneur William Weston Young had already become the major share-holder in their venture, having invested £630 into the first production period at Nantgarw, as his diaries at the Glamorgan Record Office testify, where payments are recorded to a Mr "Bealey;" an alias Billingsley travelled under since leaving Royal Worcester . It

7979-454: The wares using a mineral ingredient called huashi , mentioned by Father François Xavier d'Entrecolles in his published letters describing Chinese production. It used to be thought that the special ingredient was soapstone (aka "French chalk", a form of steatite ; cf. Chinese : 滑石 ; pinyin : huáshí , " talc "), as used in some English porcelain. However, chemical analysis of samples shows no sign of this. Hard-paste porcelain

8080-425: The wet state, or because it tends to slump in the kiln under high temperature, or because the body and the glaze can be easily scratched. (Scratching with a file is a crude way of finding out whether a piece is made of soft-paste or not.) The first soft-paste in England was demonstrated by Thomas Briand to the Royal Society in 1742 and is believed to have been based on the Saint-Cloud formula. In 1749, Thomas Frye ,

8181-564: The wet state, or because they tend to slump in the kiln under high temperature, or because the body and the glaze can be easily scratched. Experiments at Rouen produced the earliest soft-paste in France, but the first important French soft-paste porcelain was made at the Saint-Cloud factory before 1702. Soft-paste factories were established with the Chantilly manufactory in 1730 and at Mennecy in 1750. The Vincennes porcelain factory

8282-630: The world with Italy being the global leader, producing over 380 million square metres in 2006. Historic examples of rooms decorated entirely in porcelain tiles can be found in several palaces including ones at Galleria Sabauda in Turin , Museo di Doccia in Sesto Fiorentino , Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, the Royal Palace of Madrid and the nearby Royal Palace of Aranjuez . and

8383-502: Was Medici porcelain , produced between 1575 and 1587. It was composed of white clay containing powdered feldspar , calcium phosphate and wollastonite ( CaSiO 3 ), with quartz . Other early European soft-paste porcelain, also a frit porcelain, was produced at the Rouen manufactory in 1673, which was known for this reason as "Porcelaine française". Again, these were developed in an effort to imitate high-valued Chinese hard-paste porcelain. As these early formulations slumped in

8484-545: Was once-fired , or green-fired . It was noted for its great resistance to thermal shock ; a visitor to the factory in Böttger's time reported having seen a white-hot teapot being removed from the kiln and dropped into cold water without damage. Although widely disbelieved this has been replicated in modern times. In 1744, Elizabeth of Russia signed an agreement to establish the first porcelain manufactory; previously it had to be imported. The technology of making "white gold"

8585-618: Was a tendency to shatter with the temperature shock of having hot or boiling water poured into a vessel that had not first been warmed up. To this day, English tea customs dictate warming the teapot with a little water before the tea is added and the main flow of water. Putting the milk into a teacup before the tea is also a common habit; both these go back to 18th-century soft-paste. After a number of complaints of not just teapots but even tureens breaking in this way, in 1790 William Duesbury II , owner of Royal Crown Derby , had to issue instructions to his customers on how to prevent this, by pouring

8686-454: Was also being used at Swansea, and pieces can be impossible to allocate between the two with confidence. After a period of experimentation, in 1817-1820 the original paste formula was used again. After ceasing to make or decorate porcelain in the 1820s, and a period of closure, the pottery reopened in 1833, making earthenware and stoneware , as well as clay pipes , before finally closing in 1920, when cigarettes had replaced pipes. The site

8787-435: Was also used in Japanese porcelain . Most of the finest quality porcelain wares are made of this material. The earliest European porcelains were produced at the Meissen factory in the early 18th century; they were formed from a paste composed of kaolin and alabaster and fired at temperatures up to 1,400 °C (2,552 °F) in a wood-fired kiln, producing a porcelain of great hardness, translucency, and strength. Later,

8888-692: Was carefully hidden by its creators. Peter the Great had tried to reveal the "big porcelain secret", and sent an agent to the Meissen factory, and finally hired a porcelain master from abroad. This relied on the research of the Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov . His development of porcelain manufacturing technology was not based on secrets learned through third parties, but was the result of painstaking work and careful analysis. Thanks to this, by 1760, Imperial Porcelain Factory, Saint Petersburg became

8989-472: Was developed at Vincennes, whiter and freer of imperfections than any of its French rivals, which put Vincennes/Sèvres porcelain in the leading position in France and throughout the whole of Europe in the second half of the 18th century. The use of frit in this paste lent it the names " Frittenporzellan " in Germany and " frita " in Spain. In France it was known as " pâte tendre " and in England "soft-paste", perhaps because it does not easily retain its shape in

9090-428: Was established in 1740, moving to larger premises at Sèvres in 1756. Vincennes soft-paste was whiter and freer of imperfections than any of its French rivals, which put Vincennes/Sèvres porcelain in the leading position in France and throughout the whole of Europe in the second half of the 18th century. Doccia porcelain of Florence was founded in 1735 and remains in production, unlike Capodimonte porcelain which

9191-506: Was estimated to be worth US$ 4.95 billion in 2015, of which porcelain accounts for just over 48%. A type of porcelain characterised by low thermal expansion, high mechanical strength and high chemical resistance. Used for laboratory ware, such as reaction vessels, combustion boats, evaporating dishes and Büchner funnels . Raw materials for the body include kaolin, quartz, feldspar, calcined alumina, and possibly also low percentages of other materials. A number of International standards specify

9292-446: Was extremely white and translucent, and was given overglaze decoration of high quality, mostly in London or elsewhere rather than at the factory. The wares were expensive, and mostly distributed through the London dealers. Plates were much the most common shapes made, and the decoration was typically of garlands of flowers in a profusion of colours, the speciality of the founder, William Billingsley . With Swansea porcelain , Nantgarw

9393-409: Was made from two parts of bone ash , one part of kaolin , and one part of china stone , although the latter has been replaced by feldspars from non-UK sources. Kaolin is the primary material from which porcelain is made, even though clay minerals might account for only a small proportion of the whole. The word paste is an old term for both unfired and fired materials. A more common terminology for

9494-525: Was modified and improved, but was still wasteful enough for Dillwyn to abandon the project in 1817, when the pair returned to Nantgarw. Royal Worcester's attempts to sue Dillwyn, Billingsley & Walker for breach of contract was a further reason for Dillwyn to cease porcelain production at the Cambrian Pottery. The contract signed at Royal Worcester prevented the recipe being disclosed to a third party, which superficially, Flight, Barr & Barr could not prove. However, when Dilwyn's notebooks were interred at

9595-499: Was moved from Naples to Madrid by its royal owner , after producing from 1743 to 1759. After a gap of 15 years Naples porcelain was produced from 1771 to 1806, specializing in Neoclassical styles. All these were very successful, with large outputs of high-quality wares. In and around Venice , Francesco Vezzi was producing hard-paste from around 1720 to 1735; survivals of Vezzi porcelain are very rare, but less so than from

9696-399: Was obliged to work with other alchemists in the futile search for transmutation and was eventually assigned to assist Tschirnhaus. One of the first results of the collaboration between the two was the development of a red stoneware that resembled that of Yixing . A workshop note records that the first specimen of hard, white and vitrified European porcelain was produced in 1708. At the time,

9797-433: Was one of the last factories to make soft-paste porcelain , when English factories had switched to bone china , and continental and Asian ones continued to make hard-paste porcelain . The history of the ownership and management of the factory is complicated. The first formula, used in 1813–14, gave excellent results, but had an unacceptably high wastage rate, being very prone to deform ("slump") during firing. This formula

9898-462: Was produced in kilns owned by the families of feudal lords, and were decorated in the Japanese tradition, much of it related to textile design. This was not initially exported, but used for gifts to other aristocratic families. Imari ware and Kakiemon are broad terms for styles of export porcelain with overglaze "enamelled" decoration begun in the early period, both with many sub-types. A great range of styles and manufacturing centres were in use by

9999-473: Was successfully produced at Meissen in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus , though Johann Friedrich Böttger who continued his work has often been credited with the discovery of this recipe. As the recipe was kept secret, experiments continued elsewhere, mixing glass materials (fused and ground into a frit) with clay or other substances to give whiteness and a degree of plasticity. Plymouth porcelain , founded in 1748, which moved to Bristol soon after,

10100-406: Was suddenly poured into them. The German Meissen porcelain had developed hard-paste porcelain by 1708, and later German factories usually managed to find the secret out from former Meissen employees, as did Austrian Vienna porcelain in 1718. The other European countries had much longer to wait, but most factories eventually switched from soft to hard-paste, having discovered both the secret and

10201-475: Was very little used, the petitioners devoting themselves rather to faience-making". Rouen porcelain, which is blue painted, is rare and difficult to identify. The first important French porcelain was made at the Saint-Cloud factory , which was an established maker of faience . In 1702, letters-patent were granted to the family of Pierre Chicaneau, who were said to have improved upon the process discovered by him, and since 1693 to have made porcelain as "perfect as

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