Thomas Frye

Thomas Frye (* 1710 in Edenderry, Ireland; † 3 April 1762) was an Anglo-Irish painter and author of the recipe for so-called "bone china". He was the owner of the Bow Porcelain Factory in London and described himself as the "inventor and first manufacturer of porcelain in England".

In the early 1740s, he applied for a patent on the import of kaolin from the English colony of Virginia in North America. Together with his partner Edward Heyly, he began to produce so-called bone porcelain in 1745 using Virginia kaolin and the ashes of cattle bones. The added bone ash made it possible to produce extraordinarily durable and translucent porcelain in brilliant white. Frye's final recipe included calcined bone ash and was perfected in 1749 - this recipe changed the ceramic scene forever. Bone porcelain, which is over 250 years old, can still be found today. One of his daughters was later hired by Josiah Wedgwood.