Porcelain Craftsmanship

Porcelain was first made in China—in a primitive form during the Tang dynasty (618–907).
It is mainly composed of silicates such as potassium, sodium  and  calcium clay. Characterized by its whiteness, hardness and a translucent appearance.
The medieval European potters tried to imitate this translucent Chinese porcelain led to the accidental discovery of artificial, or soft-paste, porcelain, a mixture of clay and ground glass which needs a “softer” firing (about 1,200 °C, or 2,200 °F) than hard-paste porcelain. 
The first European soft-paste porcelain was made in Florence (about 1575) at workshops under the patronage of Francesco I de’ Medici, but it was not until the late 17th-18th centuries that it was produced in large quantity. 
The standard English bone china was produced around 1800, when Josiah Spode the Second, added calcined bones (bones ash) to the hard-paste porcelain formula.