News & Info

News

Merchant Hall’s Knowledge Bank

News

January/February Sales Discount for all New Members

All new members of Merchant Hall can now receive an extra 5% off the sales price of all of our goods from now until the end of February 2010!

All new members will be provided with the discount code they need for this discount via email.

Caring for Our Community

Merchant Hall again donated $1.00 for every parcel we sent to our customers during the Christmas period, to the Salvation Army.

During the last year we donated money and dinnersets to vicitims of the Victorian bushfires. We also donated $1.00 for every parcel that we sent to our customers during the 2008 Christmas period to the Salvation Army, to help them care for those in need in Australia at Christmas time.

Merchant Hall’s Knowledge Bank

Bone china – what is bone china?

Ceramics

Earthenware

Porcelain – what is porcelain?

Replacements – China & Tableware

Stoneware

At Merchant Hall we believe that knowledge gives you power: and we want you to have the power to make the best decisions when buying homewares. We have thus started to compile a knowledge bank that we hope will make you more informed as consumers, and thus happier and more satisfied customers.

Bone China – what is bone china?

Bone china was first developed in Britain during the 18th century.

Bone china is a high quality type of china or traditional whiteware ceramics product. Bone china is a hybrid hard-paste porcelain containing bone ash. It's composition of bone ash is what mainly differentiates it from hard-paste porcelain. It has the following characteristics:

It contains between 40% and 50% calcined bone ash (generally cattle bone)
It has an ivory white colour and is highly translucent (ie allows light to pass through as if slightly transparent)
Although it looks and feels quite delicate, it is extremely hard and durable. It is generally stronger than hard-paste porcelain and soft-paste porcelain
It cannot absorb fluids or food as it has a 0% water absorption rate
It is fired at high temperatures to obtain a glass like surface and is then glazed to create a strong, perfectly smooth, glossy surface

The traditional whiteware ceramics tableware products can be divided into three main groups: Porcelains (or fine china, comprising hard-paste porcelain, soft-paste porcelain and Bone China), Stoneware and Earthenware.

Ceramics

With reference to dinnerware & tableware, traditional whiteware ceramic products can be divided into three main groups (each group is separately defined within Merchant Hall’s Knowledge Bank):

Porcelains (or fine china, comprising hard-paste porcelain, soft-paste porcelain and Bone China)
Stoneware
Earthenware

Each type is made from a different composition of raw clay and other materials, and different manufacturing processes (eg the combination of the firing temperatures used to make them). The different raw materials used in combination with the different manufacturing processes gives each type of ceramics product their different properties and benefits.

Traditional whiteware ceramics can broadly be defined as the broad class of ceramic or pottery products that have the following characteristics:

They are white to off-white in appearance
They often contain a significant vitreous, or glassy, component
They are generally imperviousness to fluids (stoneware absorbs up to 5% water, porcelain 0%, and earthenware up to 10%)
They have a low conductivity of electricity and are chemically inert
They can be formed into complex shapes

Whiteware ceramics include products as diverse as fine china dinnerware, lavatory sinks and toilets, dental implants, and spark-plug insulators.

Earthenware

With reference to tableware and dinnerware, Earthenware is regarded as a type of traditional whiteware ceramics product.

Earthenware is one of the oldest materials used in pottery, and is still used extensively for pottery, tableware and decorative objects today. Earthenware is pottery that has not been fired to the point of vitrification and is thus slightly porous. It has the following characteristics:

It is slightly porous (ie it absorbs up to 10% of water)
It is nonvitreous (it is not glass-like)
It is opaque and generally red or tan in color
It is generally always glazed

Earthenware may sometimes be as thin as bone china and other porcelains. However, it differs to porcelain in that earthenware is slightly porous, opaque, coarser, it is not as translucent and it is more easily chipped than porcelain. Earthenware differs to stoneware in that earthenware is less strong, less tough, coarser and more porous than porcelain.

Due to its higher porosity, earthenware generally has to be glazed so that it is watertight. It is also glazed for decorative reasons. However, as it is slightly porous, Earthenware is one of the best suited clay bodies for hand painting (as wet paints are readily absorbed onto the clay) and often earthenware products have more intense colors. Much of the earthenware produced today is heatproof, cold proof and can thus be used for cooking, freezing and for serving. However, we recommend you check with the manufacturer first.

Porcelain – what is porcelain?

Porcelain is a type of ceramics product highly valued for its beauty and strength. Porcelain is also referred to as china, or fine china. This is because until the 17th century, China was the sole producer of porcelain. Porcelain generally has the following characteristics:

It has a hard, non-porous (it absorbs 0% water), glass like surface
It is generally glazed, it is white in colour and it is translucent (ie allows light to pass through as if slightly transparent)
It is strong, hard and durable
It has a delicate appearance

Because of its strength, porcelain is now used for many things, eg electrical insulators, laboratory equipment and dental implants. However, porcelain is best known as the material used for high quality vases & tableware, figurines and other decorative objects.

Generally, with reference to dinnerware & tableware, there are three types of porcelain you will come across in the Western world: hard-paste porcelain, soft-paste porcelain and bone china (refer to Bone China – what is bone china? in Merchant Hall’s knowledge bank, where a description of bone china is given). They differ to each other mainly because of the materials used to form them, which in turn impacts their appearance and characteristics, eg

Bone china mainly differs to the other porcelains because it contains animal bone ash. Bone chine is generally the strongest type of porcelain and does not chip as easily as the other types of porcelain
Generally the different types of porcelain have slightly different colours: bone china generally has an ivory white colour, soft-paste a creamy colour and hard-paste porcelain can have a slightly blue or gray coloured tinge
Soft-paste porcelain can often be distinguished from hard-paste porcelain and bone china because it is more granular in appearance

The traditional whiteware ceramic tableware products can be divided into three main groups: porcelains (or fine china, comprising hard-paste porcelain, soft-paste porcelain and Bone China), Stoneware and Earthenware.

Replacements – China & Tableware

Because of the status of many lines of dinnerware & tableware, there are companies that specialise in helping you find replacements for your dinnerware & tableware. Companies such as Replacements Ltd (www.replacementsltd.com) in the USA have huge amounts of stock and/or can seek the pieces you are looking for.

On our Links page, we have provided details of Replacements Ltd, as well as those of other Australian china replacements companies.

Stoneware

With reference to tableware and dinnerware, Stoneware is regarded as a type of traditional whiteware ceramics product.

Stoneware is like man-made stone. Stoneware is pottery that has been fired at a high temperatures until vitrified (that is, glasslike and impervious to liquid). It has the following characteristics:

It is nonporous (ie it only absorbs up to 5% of water)
It is extremely hard and strong: it is strong enough to resist scratching by a steel point.
It generally is opaque and coloured grey or brownish because of the impurities in the clay used for its manufacture
It is normally glazed. Because stoneware is nonporous, it does not require a glaze. When a glaze is used, it generally serves a purely decorative function

Stoneware is similar in many respects to porcelain, the chief difference being its color – ie it is more opaque (porcelain has a white colour). It is also not as translucent as porcelain, and normally it is also only partially vitrified (stoneware may be vitreous or semi-vitreous – often it is only partially vitrified). Sometimes it is hard to distinguish between porcelain and stoneware, eg some stoneware is so thinly potted that it is somewhat translucent, and some heavily potted porcelains are opaque.

The traditional whiteware ceramic tableware products can be divided into three main groups: Porcelains (or fine china, comprising hard paste porcelain, soft paste porcelain and Bone China), Stoneware and Earthenware.