A practical way to distinguish a particular type of porcelain is to examine a chipped or broken piece. Hard paste porcelain has a compact and fused body, and its fracture is brittle, homogenous, and smooth. Soft paste porcelain shows a granular fracture.
The exposed portion of the soft paste body is chalky; its upper layer can be stained with paint absorbed into the porcelain body from the painted and glazed surface. Less glittering that hard-paste porcelain, bone china has a fracture similar to that of hard paste. Its color is ivory white. Bisque is the fired ceramic ware that has not been glazed.
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- Soft paste porcelain, overglaze cobalt blue
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- Contemporary bisque porcelain
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- Bone china, overglaze painting
