Hard.—China which, on being broken, shows a sparkling surface like that of a flint stone, and is impervious to any staining by colour applied to it. Plymouth and Bristol and New Hall are the only true hard-paste porcelains of this country.
Soft.—China which, on being broken, shows a porous surface capable of absorbing colour.
Porcelain.—Commonly called china; is distinguished from pottery by being translucent.
True Porcelain is made from a mixture of two minerals—petuntse, or “china stone,” and kaolin, or “china clay,” with nothing artificially added; e.g., Chinese, Dresden, Plymouth, and Bristol chinas.
Glassy Porcelain, containing an artificial admixture of glass to give the paste translucency; e.g., Chelsea, Bow, Nantgarw, Pinxton.
Bone-ash Porcelain, of which Spode’s china is an example.
Pottery.—A term used to include all the earthenwares.
Printing.—Formerly, in old chinas, all the coloured decorations were painted. Now, by use of various mechanical devices, women and girls are employed to transfer printed patterns on modern china.
Transfer-printing.—A process used at Liverpool by Sadler and Green, and at Worcester, in which the design from an engraved copper plate was transferred to specially prepared paper and applied to the ware. Black and brown were the main colours used (see Illustrations, pp. [244-5] and facing [p. 76]).