How to tell apart porcelain and everything else

Discussion in 'Pottery, Glass, and Porcelain' started by bluemoon, Mar 20, 2017.

  1. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    Some porcelain can be quite heavy and thick, like earthenware.
    How do you determine whether something is porcelain if there are no written clues available?
     
    judy likes this.
  2. Walter Del Pellegrino

    Walter Del Pellegrino Well-Known Member

    Tap the edge or rim. If you hear a "clunk" without reverberation the item is earthenware. If you a ring to it then its porcelain.
     
    judy and Connie Osborne like this.
  3. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    I have a French faience platter that rings like a bronze bell with long and intense reverberation. Is faience an exception to the rule or is the platter actually porcelain?
     
  4. Walter Del Pellegrino

    Walter Del Pellegrino Well-Known Member

    What makes you think your platter is Faience? The term has used and abused beyond the limits of my tolerance. Below is a link to an article I wrote for my forum that may help clarify the matter.
    Porcelain clay, which contains the mineral Kaolin, when fired in a kiln becomes vitreous. This means that the clay takes on some of the properties of glass. The lure of early porcelain was due to the objects pureness of color and the fact that it did not have to be glazed.

    http://italianpotterymarks.freeforums.org/majolica-maiolica-faience-and-delftware-t724.html
     
    SBSVC, komokwa and judy like this.
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