hard porcelain

Hard-paste porcelain is a type of vitrified pottery known for its white, fine-grained, and usually translucent body. It is distinguished from earthenware, which is porous and opaque, and stoneware, another vitrified pottery material. The term "porcelain" was introduced by Marco Polo to describe pottery he encountered in China.1

True, or hard-paste, porcelain originated in China, first appearing in a primitive form during the Tang dynasty and later in the Yuan dynasty. It is made from petuntse (china stone) and kaolin (china clay). When fired at high temperatures (around 1,450 °C or 2,650 °F), the petuntse vitrifies, and the kaolin helps the object maintain its shape.1

European attempts to replicate Chinese porcelain led to the development of artificial, or soft-paste, porcelain, which requires lower firing temperatures. Hard-paste porcelain, discovered in Europe around 1707 at the Meissen factory, is preferred on the European continent, while bone china, an adaptation of hard-paste porcelain with added calcined bones, is favored in Britain and the United States.12