Porcelain Porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating materials, generally including kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between . The toughness, strength, and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainly from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. Though definitions vary, porcelain can be divided into three main categories: hard-paste, soft-paste and bone china. The category that an object belongs to depends on the composition of the paste used to make the body of the porcelain object and the firing conditions. Porcelain slowly evolved in China
Chinese export porcelain popular. From around 1720, the new "Famille Rose" palette was adopted and quickly supplanted the earlier "Famille Verte" porcelains of the Kangxi period. Famille rose enamels for the export market included the Mandarin Palette. Specific patterns such as tobacco leaf and faux tobacco leaf were popular as were, from around 1800, Canton decorated porcelain with its figures and birds, flowers and insects. Many other types of decoration such as "encre de chine" or Jesuit wares, made for Christian missionaries, pieces with European subjects like the Judgement of Paris, or Adam and Eve, were made for the European market. Other examples