Summary

Short / Brief Summary About

• Porcelain
• Bone China
• Vitrified / Vitreous
• ROK

There are different types of China, Porcelain and Tableware R.O.K. and the terms are used very loosely. Porcelain comes in hard paste and soft paste.

Hard paste Porcelain

Made from white china clay, kaolin and china stone. When fired at great heat, these ingredients fuse to become a vitreous white surface - entirely hard.

Soft paste Porcelain

Made from white china clay. Firing is at a high temperature but not as great as that of hard paste porcelain. The body is more liable to breakage.

Bone China

Bone china is hard with a combination of clay and china stone made white and strong by the addition of calcified bone. It has a finer texture, a warmer creamier colour than the "blue white" of other clays and very strong. The adding of the bone makes it translucent.

Vitrified / Vitreous

Vitreous means glass-like. Vitreous china is made of clays that are glazed and fired at extremely high temperatures. The temperature causes the glaze to fuse with the clay and become non-porous. This China is both delicate and extremely durable.

ROK

Means run of kiln, a mixture of bestware grade & good selected seconds grade. When factories have production runs a percentage of the production will have a flaw or imperfection. For example, the glaze is not even, or a speck of dust could have got onto the glaze and shows up as a little mark.