Collectible Porcelain

During AD 618-907 Porcelain, using kaolin was discovered in China during the T'ang dynasty. In the late 13th century while traveling through China, Marco Polo discovered a translucent ceramic unknown to the West. He "baptized" this iridescent colored object "porcellana" (It orig., type of cowry shell, likened to the vulva of a sow which was prized by the Romans). Porcelain became highly valued by the Emperors and heads of state in all of Europe.

After 1498 with the opening of the route to India by Vasco de Gama the porcelain rush was on. A regular trade was now established between the Orient and Europe. In the centuries following Portugal, Holland, England and France all fought for the right to import the marvelous Chinese porcelain known as "Porcelaine de la Compagnie des Indes."

During the Renaissance Alchemist were still baffled by the composition of the Chinese porcelain. Out of all the attempts, the Medicis of Florence and French princes of Saint Cloud, Chantilly and Vincennes were by far the closest to discover the formula. This gave birth the "soft-paste" which didn't have the durability and resonance of Chinese porcelain. It lacked the base element of kaolin, still unknown in Europe. In France under Louis XIV all silverware was melted down to make coins. The dishes needed to be replaced by something made out of a different material, and the result was immediate demand for porcelain from China. However, the pieces were very expensive. The State decided to step in and find out how porcelain was made. An edict went out that anybody who was able to discover the manufacturing process was to be ennobled. The earliest deposits of the mineral required to make porcelain were discovered near Meissen, in Germany during the seventeenth century.

Around 1707 an alchemist Böttger, who discovered a deposit of kaolin, founded the first known “hard paste” porcelain factory outside of China at Meissen, in Saxony. The formula was preciously guarded until when "hard paste" porcelain was produced at "La Manufacture de Sèvres" in Limousin, France.

During 1765 in Saint Yrieix la Perche en Haute Vienne, a surgeon's wife used the white substance as soap to do her washing. Her husband, impressed with the results, wanted to commercialize her discovery. Aid was sought from Villaris, a pharmacist from Bordeaux, who identified the kaolin and sold his discovery to the Manufacture of Sèvres.

After 1768 kaolin is regularly mined from Saint Yrieix la Perche near Limoges, supplying the Parisian manufacturers. This discovery led to the foundation of the Limoges Porcelain industry. Turgot, then Intendant of the Limousin area, realized the economic potential for this rather poor region, where all the other elements necessary for this output were readily available. Underground deposits around Limoges also included metals, which since the Middle Ages had been used to provide metallic oxides for coloring enamel and Faïence.

In 1771, under the impetus direction of Turgot, the production of porcelain begins in the Limousin region known as "La Manufacture Grellet frères-Massié-Fournérat". Thus ending the four century quest of the producing Limoges porcelain. The Faïence manufacture was converted into porcelain manufacture, and the region's first hard-paste porcelain began to be made. In 1774 this initial factory was placed under the protection of the Count d'Artois. By 1784 it became a subsidiary of the royal factory in Sèvres. In the wake of the French Revolution only private concerns continued in Limoges. In the early nineteenth century the factories began making the most perfectly white porcelain ever seen, proving the superiority of Limoges kaolin.

By the 1830's there were as many as thirty porcelain factories at Limoges. The second half of the nineteenth century was the golden age of Limoges Porcelain. The international renown of this center of porcelain excellence grew and grew with the development of exports, as well as the triumph of Limoges Porcelain at universal expositions organized around the world from 1855. One of the reasons why Limoges Porcelain has been so successful is without any doubt the policy of working with the most famous artists of the day. Throughout the twentieth century, right up to the present day, the greatest names from the world of decorative arts continue to help design Limoges porcelain.

Porcelain Production

Porcelain production is an aspect of ceramics - the art of working various types of clay to produce pottery, earthenware and stoneware.
Porcelain clay is essentially composed of three types of rock.

Kaolin (Chinese for "high hill"): base ingredient in porcelain (55%), very pure and plastic clay. Kaolin provides the white hue and plasticity for shaping. Kaolin results from the decomposition of feldspar and is particularly fine and white. Kaolin is to ceramics what gold is to metal.

Quartz (20%): a degreasing substance enabling the porcelain to hold its shape under firing.

Feldspar (25%): soft element allowing for the fusion of the mixture. Feldspar is needed for glazing and gives porcelain its translucent quality.

Several steps are required to produce porcelain. The raw materials (about a dozen other ingredients are added to them) are crushed and mixed. The resulting clay is then filtered and sifted; the clay is shaped using several different techniques. Gauging is used only for circular pieces. Casting is used for complex pieces. Liquid porcelain clay is poured into hollow plaster molds. Once the piece has been shaped, firing it at a temperature of 980° dries it. Since the piece is now porous, it is enameled by aspersion or by immersion in liquid enamel bath with a fine mixture of mineral compounds- after the piece is dried and finished, it is ready for its first firing. It is placed in an electric kiln at 980°; it becomes dehydrated and porous and is now entirely dipped in glaze. A second and final firing is done in a gas kiln at 1400°, here it's now vitrified and has lost 15% of its original volume and dimensions. The porous gray mixture has become white, translucent, impermeable and resonant.

Porcelain Decoration

The decoration phase of porcelain production is significant because it allows the artist to emphasize the shapes created by the modeler. In the 18th and 19th centuries all decorations were done by hand, today only few painters, like me, are totally hand painting their creations. Today most porcelain is marketed as "hand-decorated porcelain" but is made using the following methods:

Decals: The motif is hand-painted by an artist, usually using watercolors. The watercolors are then transferred to the porcelain using a decal process. Decals or lithographs are printed using a silk screen and ceramic colors on gummed paper covered with a transparent film. Details are added in gold or platinum by hand.

Inlaying: is a very high quality decoration whose authenticity is certified by a label on the back of the piece. Decorations are engraved, and then filled with a bitumen-based varnish, with the exception of the motifs. Once the piece is coated in this manner, it is plunged into a hydrofluoric acid bath, which etches the motif into the porcelain. After the piece is cleaned, two coats of gold are applied to the engraved motif. After each coat is applied, the piece is fired. Finally, the gold inlay is hand-polished using an agate stone.

Stamping: a relief is cut into a rubber band. The stamp is inked with ceramic colors, which allows the motif to be reproduced in color on the piece. In order for the colors and metals to adhere to the glaze one or more successive firings between 780° and 1350° may be necessary.