The first English China porcelain was known as 'soft-paste'. Developed by Thomas Briand (Chelsea) and presented to the Royal Society in 1742 and is believed to have been based on a formula developed by Saint-Cloud.

In 1749, Thomas Frye, a painter, took out a patent on a porcelain containing bone ash. This was the first recorded use of bone in bone china history. The recipe was subsequently perfected by Josiah Spode, unquestionably the most pre-eminent figure in bone china history.

Recipes were closely guarded, as illustrated by the story of Robert Brown, a founding partner in the Lowestoft factory, who is said to have hidden in a barrel in Bow to observe the mixing of their porcelain secrets. A partner in Longton Hall referred to "the Art, Secret or Mystery" of porcelain.

In the fifteen years after Briand's demonstration, half a dozen factories were founded in England to made soft-paste table-wares and figures:

• Chelsea 1743 (Thomas Briand and Charles Gouyn)

• Bow 1744

• St James's 1748 (Charles Gouyn)

• Bristol 1748

• Longton Hall 1750

• Derby 1757 (Sprimont and Duesbury)

• Lowestoft 1757 (Robert Brown)