A porcelain factory was established at Worcester in 1751 by Dr John Wall. It produced a soft-paste, soapstone porcelain. Its wares, which were more delicately potted than its English rivals, proved immensely popular. The factory excelled at tea and coffee set, jugs, vases and the like. (The soapstone paste was not suitable for large dishes.) Worcester wares were decorated with rich background shades of blue, green, turquoise and claret; these usually framed panels of white which were decorated with paintings. In 1789, King George 111 granted the Worcester factory a Royal Warrant and "Royal" was added to its name.

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In 1750, Squire Brown began producing ceramics from clay and coal which was found on his estate, Caughley Hall, in Shropshire. On his death, he was succeeded by his nephew who, in 1772, joined by Thomas Turner, an eminent engraver and the originator of the Willow Pattern.

In 1799, the firm was sold to John Rose who moved it to the village of Coalport on the River Severn. By 1801, Coalport dinner services were selling for two hundred guineas - equivalent to several thousand dollars today. A richly decorated Coalport dessert service, which had been presented to Tsar Nicholas 1 of Russia by Queen Victoria, caused a sensation when it was shown at the Great Exhibition.

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Porcelain was produced in England from the late 1740s, first at Chelsea and soon afterwards at Derby, Bow.and elsewhere. The early products included figures (particularly from Bow and Derby) and dinnerware ( from Bow). The Chelsea factory was established by Nicholas Sprimont, a silversmith, and initially produced pieces strongly influenced by silverware designs. During the 1850s , Chelsea was increasingly influenced by Meissen and continued in this style until it was purchased by William Duesbury of Derby in 1770. From then until its closure in 1792, Chelsea produced wares in the Derby style. While the London factories, such as Derby, Bow and Chelsea, were strongly influenced by European porcelain from Meissen and Serves and by the shapes of contemporary silverware, provincial factories, like Liverpool and Lowestoft, tended to produce chinoiserie styles until almost the turn of the century.

The Worcester Porcelain Factory was established in 1751 by Dr John Wall to produce high quality, useful wares - such as tea and coffee sets, jugs, bowls and small dishes. (The soapstone porcelain body used was not suitable for large dishes.) When Dr Wall died in 1776, the new owner decided to concentrate on blue and white printed wares. Many regard the blue and white wares produced at Worcester in the following ten years as the best ever made in Europe.

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The first ceramic factory in Copenhagen was established in 1722 to make blue and white pottery in the Delft style. A second factory was set up in 1755 to produce soft paste porcelain. In 1760, Louis Fournier introduced techniques he had learned at Sevres and the reputation of the Danish factory began to spread. In 1775, a new factory was established by Franz Heinrich Mueller and the Dowager Queen of Denmark to make hard paste porcelain. Mueller could not make the factory pay and gave his share to the King. The factory was renamed the Royal Copenhagen Porcelain Factory.

As well as fine ornamental pieces and porcelain tableware for the nobility, Royal Copenhagen produced a wide range of earthenware pieces, with similar decoration to the porcelain, originally intended primarily for the servants. Ninety percent of Royal Copenhagen’s output has been in just two patterns. One, Mussel, or the Blue-Fluted pattern, is based on a Chinese motif; the other, Blue Flower, features a variety of naturalistic flowers arranged in bouquets. The Blue Fluted pattern is very labour-intensive requiring over 1,000 brush strokes on a single plate.

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The period after the Napoleonic period in the Austro-Hungarian Empire saw the rise of the middle classes, culminating in a series of revolutions in 1848. The style of porcelain developed for the newly influential middle class became known as "Biedermeier" (originally a derogatory term). The Biedermeier style was a simplified version of the neo-classical style which had been dominant in Europe for the previous half century. It was characterised by simple outlines, flat surfaces, restrained decoration and gilding often enclosed in a coloured border. As the century progressed, the decoration became finer as it came to be used for display more than for everyday use.

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In 1745, the French had established a factory at Vincennes with a 20-year monopoly on the production of porcelain in the style of Meissen. In 1748, the technique for gilding porcelain was discovered and, from 1749, gilding. In 1752, an underglaze blue, called "bleu lapis", was introduced. From that time, the use of dark blue ground and gilding became characteristic of the more expensive wares produced by the factory. (In 1763 bleu lapis was replaced by and overglaze "bleu nouveau" which is less cloudy.)

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In the early 1700s, Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, decided that he should be able to manufacture porcelain to compete with the Chinese. He forcibly enlisted an alchemist, Frederich Bottger, to assist him in finding the formula. In 1708, Bottger produced a near-porcelain, using alabaster. In 1710, Augustus established the Royal Saxon Porcelain factory at Meissen, near Dresden, to capitalise on Bottgers discovery. In 1719, Bottger perfected the technique for making porcelain.

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After the disruption of the Manchu invasion, Jingdezhen was re-established as the porcelain centre and re-organised on a production-line basis. Manufacture and decoration were separated into a number of specialist operations. Even the decoration of a single pot was split up with one man painting flowers, another trees, and so on. To achieve this, a tighter, more precise style was necessary with more attention to detail and the loss of much of the spontaneity and sensitivity of the Ming period.

During the Kangxi reign (1662-1722), a new type of porcelain decoration was invented. Glazed porcelain was painted in enamel and then fired again. Soft colours were used with red predominating. During the nineteenth century, this became known as "famille rose". Cloisonne enamel decoration was also introduced in the Kangxi reign. The technique was copied from Europe and, in some cases, European artists were brought to China to do the painting. The artists painted their designs on carefully selected white porcelain. The designs were then overlayed with metal wire (cloisonne) and the spaces between the wires were filled with coloured enamel. The craft is so difficult that cloisonne was reserved exclusively for imperial use.

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During the Ming Dynasty, the royal family directly controlled the government pottery kilns. As a result these had the best materials and the best craftsmen. Jingdezhen became the national porcelain centre. The general characteristics of Ming porcelain are a fine-grained body, white colour tinted beige on the unglazed footring. Glazes are usually fairly thick and somewhat hazy with bubbles. They are often slightly uneven and have a bluish tinge. "Pinholes" in the glaze surface are common. Most Ming wares lack the precise finish of later periods.

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Chinese Bronze Age pottery was mainly grey but small quantities of white pottery were produced. This "proto-porcelain" seems to have been produced almost by chance. Kaolin (the main constituent of porcelain) was relatively common and the temperature required to smelt bronze (1100 degrees C) happens to be close to the firing temperature for porcelain (1250 degrees C). Very few of these white pottery items have been found and most of these were in the tombs of kings.

Types of pottery were produced during the Warring States Period included grey, red brown and black. The brown pottery was painted with coloured patterns. The black pottery was produced by smoking the pot when it was partly dry so that particles of charcoal adhered to the paste. After firing these pots were polished to a high lustre.

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