Developing a methodology for the non-destructive analysis of British soft-paste porcelain
Soft-paste porcelain was produced in Britain in great quantities between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. Due to industrial secrecy and the complexities of creating a product that would survive high-temperature firing, a range of paste recipes was employed by dozens of factories. This has resulted in an array of porcelains which vary in their elemental composition and mineralogy. This research carries out a meta-analysis of the published data for porcelain bodies and glazes and concludes that some discrimination can be achieved using the major and minor elemental composition of the bodies, and that for the glazes intra-factory variation is often greater than inter-factory variation in composition. A pilot investigation of the trace elemental composition of British porcelain is carried out using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy, which finds compositional groups corresponding to different sources of clay and silica raw materials. In the interests of preserving intact objects, there is recognised a need for a non-destructive method for analysing British porcelain, in order to provenance and date objects. Such a method would rely on data from the surface of the object, which is
Dunster, Joanna Margaret
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) ; Porcelain ; Ceramics
Developing a methodology for the non-destructive analysis of British soft-paste porcelain. Soft-paste porcelain was produced in Britain in great quantities between the mid-18th and early 19th centuries. Due to industrial secrecy and the complexities of creating a product that would survive high-temperature firing, a range of paste recipes was employed by dozens of factories. This has resulted in an array of porcelains which vary in their elemental composition and mineralogy. This research carries out a meta-analysis of the published data for porcelain bodies and glazes and concludes that some discrimination can be achieved using the major and minor elemental composition of the bodies, and that for the glazes intra-factory variation is often greater than inter-factory variation in composition. A pilot investigation of the trace elemental composition of British porcelain is carried out using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy, which finds compositional groups corresponding to different sources of clay and silica raw materials. In the interests of preserving intact objects, there is recognised a need for a non-destructive method for analysing British porcelain, in order to provenance and date objects. Such a method would rely on data from the surface of the object, which is
developing non_destructive analysis british soft porcelain soft porcelain produce britain great quantity due industrial secrecy complexity create product would survive high_temperature firing range recipes employ dozen factory resulted array porcelain vary elemental_composition mineralogy carry meta analysis publish_data porcelain body glaze concludes discrimination achieve use major_minor elemental_composition body glaze intra factory variation often great inter factory variation composition pilot investigation trace elemental_composition british porcelain carry use laser inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy find compositional group correspond different_source clay raw_material interest preserve intact object recognise need non_destructive method analyse british porcelain order provenance date object method would rely data surface object