Why are your dinner plates called "China"?

 These plates, which I painted,  are ceramics, not china

(Repost)

This is my plate, It isn't China because it has been fired to a lower temperature

I painted this design on the rim so that it can be seen even if the plate is laden with my favorite meal

So why is our tableware called China?

Dutch Explorers reached China as early as 1596. The Dutch East India Company started to import Chinese porcelain to Holland in 1602.

China kept it's secret of making Porcelain for 900 years. True Porcelain contains 2 substances known from their Chinese names as "Kaolin" (a very fine white clay) and "Petuntse" (a rock, Feldspar) which fuse at high temperatures to form a natural glass.

Every European Monarch, worth his weight in salt, had in his employ an Alchemist with the mandate to produce gold. An 18-year old German Alchemist, by the name of Friederich Boettger, uncovered the secret of how to make hard-paste Porcelain. Boettger had a dubious reputation and was arrested and kept prisoner in Dresden by the order of "Frederick Augustus the Strong", elector of Saxony. Augustus was aware that Boettger was hoping to manufacture gold from base minerals.

Augustus the Strong was also very fond of fine Chinese Porcelain. He traded a regiment of 600 soldiers for 151 pieces of beautiful white china. All along, the 2 Chinese secret ingredients, kaolin and feldspar were fairly abundant and known in Europe. Kaolin powder was used in powdering wigs of the fashionable gentry.

A Dresden scientist, by the name of Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus, a Prussian Nobleman, had been trying to discover the secret of true Porcelain. Recognizing Boettger's talent, the two joined in a quest, less hopeless than the alchemist's search for gold.

Having discovered the Chinese secret of combining kaolin and feldspar, Boettger in 1708, achieves the first practical formula for porcelain. The first pieces of china are sold at the Leipziger Easter Fair in 1710.

And now you know why your China is called China.

Gina

All plates painted by Gina