The first analyses of high-fired white wares from a newly discovered Sui to early Tang dynasty workshop site at Yiyongjie, Luoyang, are presented. SEM-EDS indicates that the Luoyang products were less vitrified than those of more famous porcelain making kilns such as Xing and Anyang but the discovery of identical wares in residential areas of the city and burials indicates that they fulfilled the needs of consumers at the time. One production group is characterised by the addition of crushed quartz to whiten the body, while the addition of feldspathic material to the glazes appears to have been common. A group of wares for which there is no production evidence shows very low phosphate concentrations in some of the glazes, consistent with recent suggestions that some early northern porcelain glazes were fluxed with a mixture of vegetal ash and limestone. The new data provide important evidence for the nature of the transition from celadon to porcelain production in the North. They suggest that an experimental approach was deliberately adopted in kilns across the region and was not confined to those kilns which later emerged as the most successful. They emphasise the need for a focus beyond the major kilns if the nature of ceramic innovation in the period is to be fully understood.