the.com/bone china
Porcelain that's secretly up to 50% cow, which is why it doesn't shatter like your ego after reading that.
means A fine, translucent porcelain made by mixing clay with bone ash, which gives it extra strength, whiteness, and that delicate chime when you tap it.
from Developed in England in the 1700s-1800s by potters chasing the luminous look of Chinese porcelain without China's secret ingredients. English clay lacked the right minerals, so makers (Josiah Spode is usually credited with perfecting the formula) added calcined animal bone ash to the mix — it whitened the body, let light pass through it, and made the ware tougher. The name is refreshingly literal: it's china, and it has bone in it.
- secret ingredient
- bone ash, literally pulverized cattle bones
- origin story
- Josiah Spode added bone ash in 1790s England
- why translucent
- thin enough that light passes through edges
- flex test
- genuine bone china rings when flicked, not thuds