A sixty seven piece Paragon fine bone china 'Stirling' dinner service, 1972-1981, decorated with cobalt and patterned gilt bands and bronze pendant borders, comprising: twelve dinner plates, nine entree plates, fourteen saucers, twelve soup coupes, eleven butter plates, and nine cups (two as found) ; backstamps to all. Diameter 10.83 in., (dinner plate)
- Bone China - Bone china, Also called 'English china", is one of the three types of porcelain, the other two being soft paste porcelain and hard paste porcelain.
Porcelain is an ancient ceramic material, first made in China, hence the common name "china", and the introduction of bone china was to counter the imports of Chinese porcelain.
The initial development of bone china is credited to Josiah Spode, who introduced it around 1800 and it was soon after copied by other manufacturers including Minton, Coalport, Davenport, Derby, Worcester, Wedgwood and Rockingham and the Herculaneum factory at Liverpool.
Spode's bone china was made by mixing ash from cattle bones with feldspar and kaolin, which created a material that was stronger, more translucent, and whiter than traditional porcelain. He began to produce this new type of porcelain in 1796 and it quickly became very popular.
At the time, the process and ingredients were kept secret and were only known to a few manufacturers and were protected by patents.
In the 19th century, bone china became increasingly popular and was widely produced by many manufacturers in England. During this time, it was considered a luxury item and was often used to create fine dining sets and other decorative items.
Bone china is still used in the production of fine porcelain wares, such as tea sets, figurines, and other decorative pieces. His basic formula of six parts bone ash, four parts china stone, and three and a half parts china clay remains the standard English body. It is still considered a luxury item due to its strength, translucency, and whiteness, and is often used for high-end and high-quality porcelain. China.
- Bronze - An alloy of copper and tin, traditionally in the proportions of about 9 parts of copper to 1 part of tin.
The discovery of bronze in Western Asia in the 4th century enabled people to create metal objects which were superior to those previoulsy possible because of its strength and hardness, and it has been used throughout the world for weapons, coins, tools, statuary and other decorative items.
It is very fluid in a molten state, and its hardness, strength when set, and non-corrosive properties makes it most suitable for casting sculpture.
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