China stone is a medium grained, feldspar-rich partially decomposed granite characterized by the absence of iron-bearing minerals. Its mineral content includes quartz, feldspar and mica; accessory minerals include kaolinite and fluorspar. It is found in one area of Cornwall in the United Kingdom and is the UK’s only indigenous source of feldspathic material currently being commercially extracted. Production levels in the four years up to 2003 averaged 2,800 tonnes per year.
Other names include Cornish or Cornwall stone. It is sometimes confused with petuntse, which although somewhat similar, is a different rock.
Famous quotes containing the words china and/or stone:
“Consider the China pride and stagnant self-complacency of mankind. This generation inclines a little to congratulate itself on being the last of an illustrious line; and in Boston and London and Paris and Rome, thinking of its long descent, it speaks of its progress in art and science and literature with satisfaction.... It is the good Adam contemplating his own virtue.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“At first your mother said . . . why me! why me!
But she got over that. Now she enjoys
her dull daily care and her hectic bravery.
You do not love anyone. She is not growing a boy;
she is enlarging a stone to wear around her neck.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)