136 Beginnings of Porcelain 



spot. Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza, 1 who wrote in 1585, reiterated 

 Barbosa's story, and (in the early English translation) called its valid- 

 ity into doubt; for, if it were true, the Chinese, in his opinion, could 

 not turn out so great a number of porcelains as is made in that kingdom 

 and exported to Portugal, Peru, New Spain, and other parts of the 

 world. 2 J. Neuhof, 8 who accompanied the embassy of the East India 

 Company of the Netherlands to China from 1655 to 1657, scorns the 

 "foolish fabulists of whom there are not a few still nowadays who 

 made people believe that porcelain is baked from egg-shells pounded 

 and kneaded into a paste with the white of an egg, or from shells and 

 snail-shells, after such a paste has been prepared by nature itself in 

 the ground for some hundred years." The Jesuit, L. Le Compte, 4 

 rectified this error by saying that "it is a mistake to think that there 

 is requisite one or two hundred years to the preparing of the matter for 

 the porcelain, and that its composition is so very difficult; if that were 

 so, it would be neither so common, nor so cheap." These two authors 

 were seconded by E.Ysbrants Ides. 5 The analogy of the beliefs in the 

 origin of murrines and porcelain is striking; and this fancy has doubtless 

 taken its root in the Orient, whence crafty dealers propagated it in the 

 interest of their business. 6 



It would be presumptuous on my part to state positively what class 

 of Oriental pottery should be understood by the murrines. The decision 

 of this question must be reserved for the specialists in this field. Stu- 

 dents of ancient ceramics seem to have already had a premonition of 

 the identity of murrines with pottery. 7 It may be permissible to point, 



1 History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China, Vol. I, p. 34 (Hakluyt 

 Society, 1853). 



1 This refutation of Mendoza, however, is not contained in the Spanish original, 

 where it is said only, "Y esto fe a visto, y es mas verosimil que lo que dize cierto 

 Duardo Barbosa, que anda en Italiano, que se haze de caracoles de mar, los quales 

 se muelen, y los meten debaxo de tierra a afinarse 100 afios, y otras cosas que acerca 

 desto dize. La muy fina, nunca sale del Reyno, por que se gasta en seruicio del 

 Rey, y Gouernadores, y es tan linda que parece de finissimo cristal. La mas fina, es 

 la que se haze en la Prouincia de Saxij" (I. Gonzalez de Mendoca, Historia de 

 las cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres, del gran Reyno dela China, p. 25, Roma, 

 1585). Saxij refers to Kuang-tung. 



' Gesantschaft der Ost-Indischen Gesellschaft, p. 96 (Amsterdam, 1669). 



4 Memoirs and Observations made in a Late Journey through the Empire of 

 China, English translation, p. 158 (London, 1697). 



* Driejaarige Reize naar China, p. 165 (Amsterdam, 1710). 



• E. Kaempfer (History of Japan, Vol. II, p. 369) alludes to another superstition 

 prevalent in his time (end of the seventeenth century), that human bones should 

 form an ingredient of China ware. 



7 E. Fourdrignier, Les etapes de la ceramique dans l'antiquite (Bull, et Mem. 

 de la Soc. d'Anthr., 1905, p. 239); he gives his opinion with great reserve, however. 



