Bavarian Porcelain: Bavaria is a region within today's Germany, near Austria and Switzerland. Fine white china must be made from a clay mineral called kaolin, Bavaria is one of the few areas that has mass deposits of this clay, also known as china clay or kaolinite.
The earliest Bavarian china factory was founded in 1794, The Royal Bayreuth company made plates, tea cups, pitchers and figurines. Other Bavarian china companies, such as Johann Haviland, Winterling and Hutschenreuther, have operations that are more than a century old.
Bavarian china is characterized by fine translucent porcelain and hand-painted colorful decorations. While floral patterns are generally used on dinnerware, hand-painted figurines are also prevalent. Paint colors are almost exclusively blue, pink, yellow, green and red. Silver and gold trim is common as well.
Every piece of Bavarian china has an identification stamp on it. Antique Bavarian china stamps help to authenticate a piece by tracing a company's marking history. Different makers change the bottom stamp regularly, so a certain stamp is indicative of a certain time period.