Ceramic is a product obtained by special procedures from clay, kaolin, sand and talc. The word ceramic came from the Greek keramos, meaning clay.
The technique and the art of the porcelain processing were obtained for the first time in China and had various development periods. For the first time the porcelain was painted during the Sun Dynasty. In the XVII – XVIII century the Chinese porcelain had a great artistic development. Green, pink and black porcelain become very famous.
In Europe porcelain became known in the XVII century because of the Chinese articles brought by the Portuguese sailors; those articles were sold equally to their weight in gold. The appearance of the Chinese porcelain sustained the imitation.
The price of porcelain was very high. The King of Saxony has built a porcelain factory at Meissen in 1710.
This manufacture, in the beginning, imitated the shapes and the ornaments of the Chinese porcelain. Later the porcelain from Meissen was influenced by the Rococo style.
The characteristics on Meissen porcelain are the blue A.R. monogram, two swords, a handle of a whip. Meissen porcelain is known as Saxa Porcelain.
In 1717 a second manufacture was founded at Vienna, then in France – 1740, Petersburg – 1744, Naples – 1771, Copenhagen – 1779, etc.
In France, the porcelain manufacture was at Vincennes in 1740, then moved in 1756 in Sevres and in 1759 it became a royal property. Here they made flowers, ornamental vases, various sets, statuettes etc. from the so called soft porcelain, and in 1768 they used hard porcelain. Sevres porcelain is distinguished by delicate and shiny colors, and also by a pure glaze.
The main types of art porcelain are: hard porcelain, soft porcelain, also called tender porcelain, natural porcelain or English porcelain, artificial porcelain or French porcelain.
In the beginning porcelain was used only for the fabrication of dinner sets and all kind of ornamental vases. Because of its proprieties, as: resistance at the action of acids and alkali, electric and thermal isolator, porcelain is used in electric industry as isolator, and in technical field for the products and objects used in laboratories.
