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History
Bone china is a British invention with a long fuse: a London experiment in the 1740s, a Staffordshire recipe in the 1790s, and two centuries in which it set the world’s finest tables.
Begin with the experiments, meet Josiah Spode, then follow the material out into the world.
Go deeper, one step at a time
Each article starts simply. Technical detail is kept in “Look closer” panels, and every page links onward.
- IntroductionBefore bone chinaChinese porcelain, the race for its secret, and the London experiments at Bow that first put bone ash into a porcelain body.
- IntroductionJosiah Spode and StaffordshireHow Spode’s Stoke works turned bone ash, china clay and china stone into a dependable commercial body — and why Staffordshire took it up.
- ReferenceA timeline of bone chinaAn illustrated timeline from Meissen and Bow to Spode, the Victorian great age, international adoption and today.
- DeeperIndustry and the wider worldBottle kilns to tunnel kilns, why bone china stayed British so long, and how Japan, Korea, India, China and others took it up.