|  (Bihar Times) Many years ago , I was invited to Sri Lanka to address a Rotary Club.  My hosts were warm and went out of their way to show me the island. Before I  was to leave, my host said that they wanted to give me a gift of a Noritake  dinner set. I asked instead for the same money to be spent on a watercolour of  the then almost  unknown painter  Senaka Senanayake . We went to his  house and I got two beautiful paintings which I treasure today . Two days later  , the then President of Sri Lanka, Mr  D.B.Wijetunga , asked me for tea  and then gave me a Noritake tea set as a gift !
 The tea set  had “bone china” written on the underside. I paid no attention because , like  most people , I thought that bone china just meant that the porcelain was thin  , white and expensive with pretty patterns on it. Much later I learnt that bone  actually meant bone and I was eating off oxen/buffalo/cow bones. The set now  lies in a truck. Bone china  is a type of porcelain first developed in Britain in which bone ash made from  ox bone is a major constituent.  It is characterized by whiteness and translucency . How did this come about ? China was the first to invent “china” and it was  a major import into England.   English manufacturers were keen to produce porcelain of the quality to be found  in Chinese imports but they had to no idea of how to make their porcelain  translucent and yet tough. The first use of bone ash in ceramics is attributed  to Thomas Frye in 1748 in Bow China Works. In 1800 , Josiah Spode of  Staffordshire’s Spode porcelain  popularised it, by mixing it with kaolin  and China  stone
              
              .  Unfortunately bone china quickly became a popular commodity  for  several reasons - The diminishing trade with China caused by very heavy import  duties on porcelain (108% in 1799), less merchant shipping available because of  the need to sustain naval and military forces overseas, the patronage of the  Prince of Wales, leader of taste at the beginning of the nineteenth century,  the growth of the professional and merchant classes who provided a market. It  was easy for existing factories to convert to making bone china because the  processes were the same as earthenware..   So bone china became a  type separate from “ fine china” Companies like Minton, Coalport, Davenport , Derby,  Worcester, New Hall,  Wedgewood and Rockingham soon followed suit. Now it is made all over the world.  Bone china cost more because tons of animal bone have to be bought  from slaughterhouses ,cleaned , boiled and burnt in the open Without this ash  component, china is not  'bone' china.   Animal bone is first processed to remove any adhering meat It is  then treated to remove glue, which is processed and used in applications where  glue is used, and also for expensive paper. The raw bone which is left after  the meat and glue have been extracted is then heated to about 1000 C at which  temperature any residual organic material is burned off . Then it is finely  ground with water and mixed with the other ingredients and then shaped into  cups, plates etc and fired.
            
                    
 Since much early bone china was issued unmarked, it is often difficult to  attribute the pieces. If the porcelain or china as it is commonly called does  not have bone china written on it , the best way to make out is to hold up the  piece of bone china up to a light and place your hand behind it, you should be  able to see your fingers through it.  It is the bone that gives the china  its transparent whiteness
 
 Spode’s  basic formula of 50%  bone ash, and 25% each of china clay and china stone remains the same today. In  fact , the more expensive and finer the bone china , the higher the percentage  of bone.
 Should  vegetarians use bone china ? Not just vegetarians, should anyone use it is the  question. These are the arguments that people give : “ The animal is not killed for the bone. This is simply a by  product” Animals do die for it. In India, large animals like buffaloes  and cows are NOT killed for their meat as only a very small percentage of  people eat it. They are killed for their skin and bones. We have the largest  leather industry in the world for instance and it only uses cowskin. We do kill  animals for the bones. In fact the varakh industry kills cows simply for their  intestines. “You didn’t kill the animal “ But your family members did by  buying the bone china. Where there is no demand , there is no production.
 “ The china set is very old and has heirloom value. The animals  are long dead” That may be true but you can prevent them from being killed now  by not creating a demand for them.
  You need to minimise your contribution to animal suffering and  exploitation. After all most vegetarians use medicines that have been tested on  animals and some , like insulin, which are made of animal tissue like cow and  pig. But using bone china is unnecessary.  Would you eat on animal bones ?  The plate is 60 % bone. For me it is on par with using leather, silk and  ivory.. Bone china is essentially a decorative item –  like wearing bones  as beads or having a library of smelly leatherbound books..   Saying that you have it and therefore have to use it is another  problem. If you use it, you create a demand for it in another person’s mind  when he/she sees it. So put the crockery you have in a trunk and forget about  it. I know it would be more practical to say sell it and give the money to a  local animal shelter. But that would create a continuing demand. It’s like  selling ivory or those dreadful dustbins that people used to make out of sawed  off elephants’ legs.  Is it possible for you to enjoy a product of  something else's pain ?   Now there are companies that  are making synthetic bone ash by mixing  hydrated lime with phosphoric acid at a particular temperature . Sri Lanka has a factory in a village  near Colombo  which is making look alike bone china without using bone ash. They use calcium  phosphate instead. So look for one of these companies if you absolutely insist  on having fine china.
            
            Don’t contribute to animals  being used and killed for nonsensical reasons. Don’t be like the Aggarwals of   Bharat Potteries in Jaipur who are vegetarians themselves but who take  cow and buffalo bones and use it for their bone china factory.  
            
            
            
            
            
            
           
            Comments... I   found this article really interesting and informative, although I may not agree   with the author’s philosophy completely. I used to wonder why the name “Bone   China”, and now I know. I must say that the author has put in a lot of effort   and research into this article. Her arguments against the use of bone china are   really convincing. -   Pramod Pramod.Kumar@mathworks.com 
            
            
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