While the term “bone china” is commonly used when picking out serving dishes and place settings for a house, most people don’t know the origin behind the term. Bone china is named as such because it does, in fact, have bone ash inside of it. The process of making bone china dates back to the 18th century, when a man in England came up with a new way to create china that involved calcined bone ash. It was thought that this new formula would be stronger than simple porcelain, and, over the years, bone china has still maintained a reputation as one of the finest porcelain products. Companies like Lenox—the only one in the United States—still make bone china, all based on this idea of bone ash that began several hundred years ago.