Bone china

Spode included kaolin, so his formula, sometimes called "Staffordshire bone-porcelain", was effectively hard-paste, but stronger, and versions were adopted by all the major English factories by around 1815.

His factory was located very close to the cattle markets and slaughterhouses of London and Essex, and hence had easy access to animal bones.

He died suddenly the year later, and his son Josiah Spode II quickly rechristened the ware "bone china".

Bone china quickly proved to be highly popular, leading to its production by other English pottery manufacturers.

[16][17][18][19] Bone china consists of two crystalline phases, anorthite (CaAl2Si2O8) and β-tricalcium phosphate/whitlockite (Ca3(PO4)2) embedded in a substantial amount of glass.

[20] For almost 200 years from its development bone china was almost exclusively produced in the UK; it was ignored by most European and Asian countries already making porcelain.

During the middle part of the 20th century manufacturers in other countries began production, with the first successful ones outside the UK being Japan's Noritake, Nikko and Narumi.

[21][22] Lenox was the only major manufacturer of bone china in the United States,[23] and supplied Presidential dinner service to the White House.

Other countries producing considerable amounts of bone china are Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.