Understanding bone china
Ten questions people often ask, answered briefly — each with a route into the full story.
Was bone china invented in China?
No. It was developed in England; the “china” in its name simply meant porcelain.
In eighteenth-century English, “china” meant porcelain, after the country it first came from. Bone china was developed in England — first experiments in London in the 1740s, the commercially successful recipe in Staffordshire in the 1790s — and was made almost entirely in Britain until the twentieth century. Today it is made in many countries, including China. The name describes the material, not where a piece was made; the backstamp or label tells you that.
Does bone china contain bones?
It is traditionally made with bone ash — a mineral left after bone is heated to a very high temperature.
Calcining bone burns away the organic material and leaves calcium phosphate, which is ground and mixed with clay and stone. In the kiln it reacts again to form new crystals and glass. The ingredient’s animal origin is real, even though the fired ceramic is inorganic. Some makers now use calcium phosphate from mineral or synthetic sources. If the origin matters to you, ask the maker: the name alone will not tell you.
Is bone china fragile?
Not in the way it looks. It can be made thin because the body is strong.
Bone china has good bending strength for its thickness, which is what allows fine walls. Like all ceramics it can chip or break if knocked hard, and a fine rim is more exposed than a thick one. Strength, chip resistance and impact resistance are different properties; compare equivalent products under the same tests rather than materials in general.
Why is it expensive?
Because it is difficult to make well, not only because of its ingredients.
The body is hard to shape, it is fired very hot on supports, the firing window is narrow, and pieces shrink considerably. Losses are higher than for many other ceramics, and fine pieces involve a lot of hand work. Decoration, especially burnished gold, adds further cost. Prices vary widely: bone china is made at many levels of quality.
Is porcelain better?
Bone china is a porcelain. Neither kind is better in general.
In the international standard for porcelain tableware, bone china is a type of soft paste porcelain. Hard-paste porcelain is fired hotter with its glaze, usually has a cooler white, and is excellent for heavy daily use. Bone china is typically a warmer white, more translucent for its thickness, and can be made thinner and lighter. Which is better depends on what the piece is for — and on how well it was made.
Can it be used every day?
Yes. Hotels, restaurants and airlines use it daily — the decoration sets the limits.
A well-made bone china body is vitrified and glazed. What it will tolerate depends mainly on decoration and on the maker’s instructions, which differ.
Is bone china dishwasher safe?
Often, but not always. Check the maker’s instructions for the pattern.
Makers differ: Royal Crown Derby says its dinnerware is dishwasher safe but recommends hand washing pieces with gold or platinum; Halcyon Days says precious-metal pieces should always be hand washed; Royal Albert advises against dishwashers altogether. Where machine washing is allowed, use a gentle cycle and load pieces so they cannot knock together.
Is bone china microwave safe?
Never with gold, platinum or other metal decoration. Otherwise, it depends on the maker.
Every maker we checked says pieces with metallic decoration must not go in a microwave. Several say their undecorated bone china is microwave safe; others advise against using it for cooking. Not every bone china product is microwave safe, so check the specific piece.
What is “new bone china”?
A trade name — not bone china in the standard sense.
“New bone china” is used for bodies that resemble bone china but contain little or no calcium phosphate, often a whiter porcelain or an alumina-strengthened body. It is not, as far as we have found, a category defined in the standards, and it does not meet the ISO definition of bone china unless the fired body contains the required phosphate.
How can I tell genuine bone china?
Translucency and the backstamp are good clues; only a laboratory test proves composition.
Thin bone china usually lets light through, and most makers mark it “Bone China” or “Fine Bone China”. But some porcelains are translucent too, and a backstamp is the maker’s statement rather than a measurement. Bone china is defined by composition — at least 35% tricalcium orthophosphate in the fired body under ISO 5644 — which only chemical analysis can confirm.