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KERAMIC STUDIO 
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD PORCELAIN 
John Gets 
J T is a singular fact that China, although the creator of so 
1 marvelous a product, so pleasant to the eye, so worthy as 
an adjunct to our most luxurious surroundings, should not 
likewise have given it its name. It remained for western 
countries to call it porcelain. 
The word "pourcelain" is often found in medieval 
French inventories, applied to many different objects, and 
evidently was used to specify all kinds of carved vases or 
utensils made of shells or mother-of-pearls 
The word has undergone sundry unimportant transfor- 
mations at the hands of writers of past ages, who gave the 
name to Oriental porcelain, probably because it resembled 
shell. At least, this seems to be the accepted hypothesis. 
The word porcelain is possibly of Italian origin, and derived 
from the similarity of the glazed white surface to that of 
the cowrie shell (porcellana.) 
Jacquemart and Fignier believed the word porcelain 
to be derived from the Portuguese porcelana, or porcolla, 
vessel. 
In China porcelain is termed Yao, a word signifying an 
object baked in a kiln, whether glazed porcelain or glazed pot- 
tery. This word came into use from the Thang dynasty (A. 
D. 618), when the paste became translucent and white, 
through the use of kaolin. The word Thao was used before 
that epoch, and probably refers to a primitive kind of pottery 
or stone ware. The Chinese also called a kind of porcelain 
"Tse," whence some writers erroneously interpret the word 
Tse-khi as porcelain, ignorant of the fact that this word desig- 
nated a porcelain made from a stone called Tse-chi, found in 
the district Tse-tcheou. 
In A. D. 1171 we first find a clear mention of porcelain 
outside of China. In that year Saladin sent to Mueddin a 
present of forty pieces of Chinese porcelain. 
The port of Canton was visited by the Arabs about the 
ninth century, and they probably were the first to bring por- 
celains from China. At that epoch porcelain is said to have 
been more or less gray, that is, not made wholly from kaolin. A 
century later pieces appeared in Europe that were nearly white. 
Marco Polo, in 1280, visited one of the sites of porcelain 
manufacture, and states that it was exported to all parts of 
the world. It was probably he through whom the attention 
of his countrymen was called to the product of the far East. 
Other travelers, of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
likewise noted it. It probably reached Europe through 
Egypt. At any rate, a present of porcelain vases was sent by 
the Sultan of Egypt, in 1487, to Lorenzo de Medici. The 
Portuguese, however, doubtless made the first direct importa- 
tion of Chinese wares in Europe, after which the various India 
Companies of Holland, England, France and Sweden soon 
followed. 
SALAD PLATE, CHICORY— ADELAIDE ALSOP ROBINEAU 
THE decorative head can be used in every alternate orna- 
ment in this border, or in only one medallion as sug- 
gested, or if the head seems too difficult it can be omitted and 
the flower design alone be used. 
We would suggest a simple treatment of blue and white 
with darker blue outlines or a dull green with the chicory 
flower in blue, the face and hands a pale brown, the whole 
outlined in dark blue. 
