A luxury guide to Kitchenware this new decade

This guide provides all the information you need to collect, care for and store your kitchen utensils, from KPIs to understanding compatible terms. Ceramics is a collective term for all products made from clay-based mixtures and cured by heat. However, in the ceramic world, there are many categories of different qualities and properties.

Types of crockery and materials

The main categories of ceramics are ceramics, ceramics, and porcelain.

1. Earthenware and stoneware crockery

Pottery and pottery are certainly the most common of the three, but both are opaque (porcelain is translucent), but there are some differences to keep in mind.

Porcelain stone tools are harder, stronger, extremely durable, and more heat-resistant than earthenware, so they are often used in the manufacture of kitchen utensils such as casseroles and baking trays. It is usually much heavier than ceramic, and after chipping, it looks dark and grainy inside.

Pottery is sometimes used as practical tableware, but it is a low-value alternative to porcelain. It can be decorated as porcelain (though not of high quality) and looks white and chalky if tiled. Many cultures are well known for their decorative pottery, such as tagine and terracotta pots.

2. Porcelain and bone china crockery

When it comes to Buy luxury crockery set, of course, you can only think of ceramics or bone china, but these two and even their quality can be very different.

Porcelain is a hard, translucent, usually white ceramic material. There are two main types, hard-paste porcelain, and soft porcelain.

Hard porcelain or real porcelain is distinguished by the use of kaolin (or Chinese clay) and feldspar in its composition. It is ideal for meals because it is not porous.

Soft-paste porcelain first appeared in Europe in Florence from the 16th century, when Europeans sought to discover the secrets of oriental design by adding additional ingredients such as powdered glass.

With a royal power and a champion of fine ceramics since 1759, Wedgwood is an undisputed expert in fine tableware. Bone china is made by adding Chinese clay, Chinese stone, and bone ash. This additive gives the material great strength and transparency, which means it thins without losing strength.

Currently, fine bone china is made by mixing bone ash with hard-paste porcelain. (The quality of bone china depends on the amount of bone ash contained. At least 30% bone ash is acceptable.) Due to its durability (the result of a combination of hardness and density), bone china is a good choice for a Luxury crockery set. By adding bone ash, a characteristic creamy white color is also obtained.

Hard and soft-paste porcelain is transparent because it is fired at a much higher temperature than porcelain stones and faience.