I then found out that it hadn't been but the shock is still with me. Every time I hear something smash even in the staff canteen, I get a horrible shock. But I've begun to get over it. This is a difficult question. There are two types of porcelain.
Porcelain is translucent as opposed to pottery, which is opaque.
True porcelain, which is hard, is the great Chinese original recipe - equal quantities of china clay and china stone. The proportions are mixed and then fired at over 1400 degrees centrigrade. The body becomes white, translucent and hard. Other types of porcelain are termed artificial or soft-based porcelain and they are made of various forms of clay and stones that become translucent at a lower temperature. For example, if you add a large amount of animal bone to the mix it becomes an English recipe called bone china.