Briefly about porcelain production
The basic material for the production of porcelain is kaolin – China clay. This name comes from the Chinese "Gao Ling" , from the name of the mountain, where this material was discovered. Other additives to get the suitable mass are silica sand, feldspar, Alabaster and marble. Different kinds of porcelain with different properties are achieved by the different ratios of these ingredients.
Average ratios of ingredients: 50% kaolin, 25% of silica and 25% feldspar (flux), chalk, marble.
The various materials are milled into a fine powder, mixed together with the water and becoming plastic ceramic mass.
Shaped products are dried in the air and then they are burned in the oven at 900 ° C. This burning causes a regrouping of atoms of aluminum, silicon and oxygen to create new bonds. For general use, the porcelain products are glazed by soaking up the glaze milk - a slurry of the same composition as the porcelain matter. Glazed product are then dried and burned at 1300 - 1600 ° C. The glaze at such as high temperature melts and fills the pores in the raw material. The burned item is cooled down slowly to prevent cracks in the glaze (in some cases this effect is required on the glazed products).
Porcelain objects are also decorated by applying a liquid of metal oxides, which gives, after further burning, the required color and the design.
History of Porcelain
Craft of the porcelain production comes from China and its origin can not be conclusively determined in time, because there was not distinguished between a hard stoneware and the porcelain in that time. Based on the historical sources it can be concluded the 16 century BC to be the beginning of porcelain.
- 1600 – 1027 BC.
- Shang Dynasty – so called "proto-porcelain".
- 206 BC. – 220 AD.
- Han Dynasty – the first glazed porcelain.
- 618 – 907 AD.
- Tang Dynasty – porcelain of the present quality. One color or more.
- 1275 – 1292
- Marco Polo delivers the first porcelain to Europe and he calls this – as porcelain.
Another 500 years until Europeans discover the secret of porcelain production. - 1368 – 1644
- Ming Dynasty – expansion of production of porcelain ware , vases and art.
Blue and white decorations.
Export to Europe. - 16th century
- Europeans attempt to copy Chinese porcelain.
- 1574 – 1587
- The first good results, so called Medici-porcelain.
- 1662 – 1722
- Qing Dynasty – during the reign of emperor Kchang Si – it is the zenith of the cooperation with Europe
- 1708
- The first white porcelain produced in Germany. Porcelain factory founded in Meissen and in Dresden.
- 1712
- the discovery of Chinese technology of porcelain production. Widespread porcelain production in Europe.
- 1719
- Vienna porcelain factory founded.
- 1792
- The first porcelain factory founded in Bohemia – Schlaggenwald (Horni Slavkov).
Expansion of the porcelain productiona in Europe. - 1853
- Production of porcelain started also in Kopřivnice (Nesselsdorf). Since 1890 - especially the tiles for stoves. .
