ComradeHuxley
Donor
Medici porcelain was the first successful attempt in Europe to make imitations of Chinese porcelain. The experimental manufactory housed in the Casino of San Marco in Florence existed between 1575 and 1587 under the patronage of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
The body of Medici porcelain ware is a type of soft-paste porcelain, composed of white clay containing powdered feldspar, calcium phosphate and wollastonite (CaSiO3), with quartz. The glaze contains calcium phosphate, indicating that the middle-eastern technique of using calcined bone to make an opaque white glaze was adopted.
However in OTL the entire project was ultimately relatively short-lived and never a commercial venture. Medici porcelains were in privat use and sometimes given as diplomatic gifts; for example, surviving pieces bear the arms of Philip II of Spain.
But what if Francesco I de' Medici and his alchemists had actually succeeded in creating Hard-paste porcelain (Chinese porcelain as we know it)?
This is a ceramic material as well that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at very high temperature, usually around 1400°C.It was first made in China around the 7th or 8th century, and has remained the most common type of Chinese porcelain.
The body of Medici porcelain ware is a type of soft-paste porcelain, composed of white clay containing powdered feldspar, calcium phosphate and wollastonite (CaSiO3), with quartz. The glaze contains calcium phosphate, indicating that the middle-eastern technique of using calcined bone to make an opaque white glaze was adopted.
However in OTL the entire project was ultimately relatively short-lived and never a commercial venture. Medici porcelains were in privat use and sometimes given as diplomatic gifts; for example, surviving pieces bear the arms of Philip II of Spain.
But what if Francesco I de' Medici and his alchemists had actually succeeded in creating Hard-paste porcelain (Chinese porcelain as we know it)?
This is a ceramic material as well that was originally made from a compound of the feldspathic rock petuntse and kaolin fired at very high temperature, usually around 1400°C.It was first made in China around the 7th or 8th century, and has remained the most common type of Chinese porcelain.