Bisque porcelain or biscuit porcelain, takes its name from it's first or initial firing, when the brittle porcelain could be snapped off like a biscuit.
Bisque porcelain is also widely known as "biscuit ware", unglazed ware and more popularly as "parian" ware. All bisque or parian porcelain is unglazed and in Victorian times was admired for its sculptural qualities. The name "Parian" is in fact attributed to Thomas Minton, the famous 19th century English potter, who coined the name Parian after Paros, the Greek island that quarried much of the pure white sculptural marble used in studios. Of course, the originator of porcelain was China, including unglazed white bisque porcelain, known to the Chinese potters as "Fan Ts'u". China was, before the early 18th century, the only producer of porcelain in the world and this is commemorated by the standard name we give to porcelain - "China".
When porcelain receives its first firing, it is porous. It is then glazed and refired. This second firing causes the glaze to fuse with the porous shape and become vitrified, or "glass-like". From this "glazed in the white" state, it is then moved to the decorating department to be painted by skilful porcelain painters, or to be transfer printed.
At the finish of this decorating process, the shape is then refired to fix the coloured enamels. If gilding is to be applied, the shape is fired yet again with each firing at a lower temperature than the last, the heat being gradually reduced. In the production of bisque porcelain, the porcelain is left in the white and unglazed.
Ceramic glazes have an enormous benefit to porcelain manufacturers as glazes hide faults. With bisque, this helpful element is missing and quality is entirely dependent on detailed modeling and production control.
We illustrate a pair of Bisque lamps, described as -
A fine pair of, English, high Victorian, or possibly, American made, slip cast, bisque lamps. Bisque, also known as "biscuit", is unglazed porcelain which has been fired only once.
The lamps of formal neo classic style with a deep cream colour. The upper section of the lamps, moulded as formal acanthus compositions and the central urn shapes moulded with evenly spaced swags supported by tied ribbons. The centres of the urns decorated with large loose bouquets of garden flowers and foliage supported by a suspended tie.
The urn shaped lamps on short circular socles, the rims dragooned and standing on square pedestals.
Bisque was creamy with a new color in 1846 and again in the late 19 th century revival. It has a palette of colors, from white to cream and was also called "Parian", a reference to the white marble from the Greek island of Paros, a lot of famous sculptors studied. Bisque was highly favored in the Victorian period, because of its appearance than plastic.
It is very fashionable pair of late Victorian lamps.
Approx 1890 Total Height(Includes color) 20 "/ 50 cm
Although we still retain the "biscuit porcelain" name, modern production methods now produce a hard, durable and ceramics without the fragility of glass biscuit very soon need to stabilize the shape.
Happened in Europe, pure white, biscuit porcelain, just like a ballerina in the middle of 1750 with the production of an impressive portrait busts and groups of figures in brilliant white marble look-a-like.
On the Vincennes factory, anice set of children shaped by designs of Boucher and have been shaped by Blondeau with the other half of the 18 th century factories as Sèvres and Mennecy products, the production of figurative sublime quality.
In England in the 18 th century the factory in Derby has produced finely detailed characters in the plain biscuit. British numbers are conventionally designed with color, these figures looked great.
The English of the 18 th century it was high point in 1774, with JosiahWedgwood jasper discovery. Jasper is a fine, glazed stoneware, now recognized to be seen as good as a synonym for the name Wedgwood.
Jasper has been copied by French Sevres bisque porcelain and other French and German factories. By the end of the 18 th Century, as usual, dominated the taste changes and not painted, neoclassical style. Biscuit porcelain reached new heights of sophistication with elegant Regency style.
Bisque busts Library, Wedgwoodjasper white glazed bisque models and elegant French and English. Bisque was creamy, with a new color introduced by Copeland in Staffordshire in 1846 and was immediately echoed by other British and American manufacturers.
And now, for the technical side! The production of bisque porcelain figures, or the lamp base, begins with the eye of the designer, with a sketchbook and pencil, an overview of the design concept. This idea is of course designed by the contemporary style of the time.
BiscuitChina, like all complex ceramic molds, slip cast or molded. The slip is liquid manure, which the potters' clay with water into a creamy semi-liquid state, which is literally poured into pre-formed plaster molds, in order to take shape is composed of mixed.
Slippage is the raw material that we see behind the beautiful china. This fluid is a mixture of kaolin, feldspar and flint finely ground. Kaolin is a natural, very fine clay, with a high percentage ofSilicates.
Feldspar is a mineral crystal, with a high content of silica and quartz is a finely ground flint hard. These are just the main content of this blend of porcelain, which was developed and perfected over hundreds of years.
The chemistry is much more complex potassium, sodium and calcium contributes to the finished product. Both ceramic and porcelain made by slip in plaster molds plaster to absorb water from the flow, leading to ato form a solid layer, the excess is then drained.
And 'interesting to note that the tradition of casting with plaster, shaped pre-forms is not new, the method introduced in England around 1745, allegedly by a potter named Ralph Daniel of Cobridge.
If the remaining cheese slipping become difficult or sometimes referred to as "hard skin", the plaster molds are removed and the cast assembled to produce continuous slip design desired.
Traditionallyfunction of this meeting was conducted by a staff member as a "laboratory". It 'was his job to remove all traces of seams and smoothing tool. This post is very similar to that used today with a wicket, to act as an adhesive. When the installation is complete, the molds are dried in the air so that the pieces to dry.
The completed form is sent into the oven for cooking. Some things never change, and the production base of this elegant china, it seemsis one of them.
And remember, a good lamp, used to be difficult to find!
