The premium destination for exclusive dinnerware from avant garde manufacturer
Découvrez notre toute nouvelle boutique attenante à nos ateliers et en plein cœur de Limoges. Rendez-vous au 5 impasse d’Isly où nous serons ravis de vous accueillir du mardi au samedi. Et également le dimanche 17 décembre ! N'hésitez pas à commander en ligne jusqu'au mardi 19 décembre minuit inclus pour recevoir votre commande avant les fêtes !

F.A.Q.’S

Our customer service team is available Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm to help you with the following:

-Guide you through the purchasing process, from order to delivery, to taxes and returns.

-Respond to your questions about our products and our site.

-Advise on sizing.

-Give you information on the availability of products not currently in stock.

You can send us a message on our website, send us an email at mail@nonsansraison.com, or call us at +33 5 55 10 93 13.

How can one precisely sort and recognize a porcelain ?

To determine this, the first thing to do is to check the piece’s translucence. Hold the item up to as strong a light as is available. The light will show through a true porcelain or china piece. The second method for determining if a piece is authentic porcelain will only work if the piece is flawless or nearly so. Set it on a stable smooth surface and strike it lightly. A true china piece will ring with a clear bell like sound.

Why the porcelain is delicate?

Porcelain is justly prized for its fine qualities.

Porcelain is a strong material and will last a long time! The toughness, strength and translucency comes mainly from vitrification at the high temperatures it goes through. Porcelain conserves its color and characteristics for a long time. Words that describe it are: hard, tough, completely vitrified, whiteness, translucency, resonance. and a high resistance to chemical attack and thermal shock. Despite its seeming fragility, porcelain can actually withstand a great deal of wear.

Glossary of porcelain terms

Glossary of porcelain terms

Ceramics

A general term referring to all wares made from fired clay, including earthenware, stoneware, porcelaneous ware and porcelain – or an object made from such substances. From the Greek words Keramikos and Keramos – meaning “potter’s clay” and “pottery”.

Porcelain

The generally accepted definition of porcelain is that of a white, vitrified, translucent ceramic, fired to a temperature of at least 1280 centigrades. The body of most Chinese porcelain is made from a mixture of white China clay (kaolin) and porcelain stone (dunzi, a feldspathic rock); the latter being ground to powder and mixed with the clay. The body and glaze are usually fired together in a reducing atmosphere at a temperature between 1200 and 1300 centigrades in a single firing, forming an integrated body/glaze layer.

Kaolin

White-firing China clay, an essential ingredient of Chinese porcelain. It consists mainly of silicon oxide and aluminum oxide, with a low content of iron oxide and other metallic oxides. The name derives from that of the Gaoling (High ridge) hills, from where the China clay used at the Jingdezhen kilns was obtained up until the end of the Ming dynasty.

Biscuit

Unglazed porcelain. In Europe Biscuit porcelain was used for making figures at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century at the Sevres porcelain factory and particularly at Meissen and at the Derby porcelain factories in England. The French term for biscuit ware is, Bisque.

Enamel

In ceramics, enamels may be applied either to a pre-fired, unglazed body, or painted onto the surface of a high-fired glaze, after which the object is fired a second time at a lower temperature. Overglaze enamels seem first to have appeared in China on stonewares made at the Cizhou kilns in the Song or Jin dynasties.

Enamel pigment in its natural state is a dry powder. It can be applied in several ways, usually mixed with oil, glue or plain water. When applied by painting, the colors are applied by gently, sweeping brush strokes. Once the pigment has dried no further work can be done without first firing the ware. If another color is to be painted over the first coat it is sometimes necessary to keep the applied oxides wet. If the initial coat was allowed to dry it would be removed by the brush when the second coat was applied.