Decorating Studio's Home Decor & Decorating with Porcelain & China

Only The Best Resources for
Porcelain, China & Glassware
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Art On Tiles - Exquisite hand painted tiles and sinks.
Bonique - offers imported glassware and ironware.
Porcelain House Deluxe Company - offers original limited-edition porcelain and pottery pieces.
Herend Porcelain Manufactory - provides history for one of the oldest porcelain factories in Hungary, established in 1826.
House of Portia - specialists in discontinued Royal Doulton products including Beswick, Royal Albert and Royal Crown Derby.
Howards of Aberystwyth - dealers of antique Staffordshire pottery and British pottery. With an emphasis on animal figures and themes.
Meissen Shop, The - specializing in antique Meissen porcelain of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
Porcelain Gallery, The - hand-painted porcelain pieces by artist Catherine L. Tonning. Also offering supplies and porcelain painting seminars and courses. Porcelain House Deluxe Company - offers original limited-edition porcelain and pottery pieces.
KCIC Collectible Porcelain Christmas Ornaments - collectible porcelain ornaments inscribed and hand-trimmed in gold with an Advent Bible verse.
Porcelain Knob Shop - specializes in porcelain knobs for remodeling the home or office.
Russian Tea Ceremony - produces a whimsical line of unique collectible teaware.

Glassware

A World of Old Bottles and Bygones - advertising antique bottles for sale and more.
Banford Paperweights - including crystal, lampworked, flameworked, and contemporary art glass paperweights.
Debbie Tarsitano Paperweights - creates glass paperweights using the lampwork and copper wheel engraving methods.
Hengshui Arts & Crafts Factory - offering bottles crafted and painted by hand. International Paperweight Society - working to further the awareness of the art of the paperweight. Various artist's work for sale.
Larry Berndt's Milk Bottle Page - buys and sells antique milk bottles.
Paperweight Store, The - sell Scottish glass and china paperweights, shipping worldwide.
Presse-Papiers.com - offers paperweights from Paul Stankard and other artists from around the world.
Robert Hall Chinese Snuff Bottles - for collectors of and scholarly articles about snuff bottles.
Snuff Bottle Store, The - offers a variety for sale, as well as history and symbolism.
Wallingford Internet Antique Bottles - site contains information as well as the
William Pitt Paperweights - offering antique and contemporary glass paperweights.

Porcelain
Today the term porcelain is used loosely to describe shaped clay fired at extremely high temperatures, much higher than used in conventional china manufacture. When shaped thin enough porcelain is translucent, as is bone china. As a matter of fact, the recipe for both porcelain & bone china are closely aligned. The term "bone china" however, indicates that calcified animal bone ash (usually 25% to 50% of the total mixture) has been added to the basic batter of white clay and pulverized stone.
Semi-Porcelain
A harder, more durable form of earthenware. The principle ingredient is china clay or feldspathic clay baked at a high temperature. Often the term semi-porcelain and high-grade earthenware are interchangeable.
Bone China
The ingredients of bone china are china clay, china stone, silica, alumina, alkalies, lime and bone ash. It is fired at high temperatures of 2300 to 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. In the best grades of English bone china 50% or more of the body consists of refined bone ash prepared from specially selected animal bones which are reduced to a fine powder by heat. The bone is mixed with the finest china clays and highest quality Cornish stone. Specially skilled workers are needed in the manufacture of bone china and the best and most highly skilled in the world are found in the pottery district of England.
Earthenware
The basic mixture for earthenware is potash, sand, feldspar and clay. This type of dinnerware is fired at anywhere from 600 to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit - usually around 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Earthenware (often mistakenly referred to as "china" is not made from a hard paste. It has a softer body and is much cheaper to produce. It can be made almost as thin as bone china, but it lacks translucency. It is not as durable as bone china and chips more easily. However, it is much less expensive, lends itself to colorful decorations and is often interesting and quite beautiful.
Fine China
Dinnerware designated as "Fine China" usually indicates that feldspar, a glassy and hard crystalline mineral made up mainly of aluminum silicates rather than bone ash has been used as the fluxing (fusing or bonding) agent. Fine china does not have the pure white body seen in bone china - it tends to have a grey-white hue.
Ironstone
The trade name for a high-grade type of Earthenware. Ironstone is the name given to a higher fired, durable formula for white-glazed earthenware that was developed in England. Sometimes the term "ironstone" is used indiscriminately to describe white glazed earthenware of many qualities - not always the high standard set by the original English ironstone.
Stoneware
A non-porous ceramic made of a special clay that can be fired at high temperatures - around 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. A high quality stoneware is made from various mixtures of kaolin, ball clay, feldspar and flint, each manufacturer having his own recipe. Stoneware is fashionable, strong, resistant to chipping, microwave safe, oven proof and dishwasher safe. It goes from freezer to oven (before the oven is hot) and oven to table.