Porcelain is a fine and translucent ceramic that, if it is produced from kaolin by baking at over 1,200 ° C, takes the more precise name of hard porcelain. It is mostly used in tableware.
The techniques of porcelain manufacture reached their perfection in China in the twelfth century, in Germany in the eighteenth century, and in France at Limoges in the nineteenth century.
A ceramic is a baked clay object. Ceramic is this material, or the technique that allows to make it. By extension, many contemporary non-metallic and inorganic materials enter the field of technical ceramics.
The term ceramics comes from the ancient Greek κέραμος, keramos ("potter's earth", "clay"), but does not appear in its modern sense until the mid-nineteenth century, during which time science studies the material and the archeology (ceramology) is really beginning to take an interest in ancient ceramics. The term pottery - potter's art - is no longer sufficient to designate the whole variety of production.