"It is probably from Italy that Holland received this art. The
Venetians, the Genoese, and the Florentines, had very extensive
commercial dealings with the merchants of Antwerp and of other towns in
the Low Countries; it is therefore extremely likely that the potters of
Holland, to whom is due the first fabrication of clay tobacco-pipes of
excellent quality, derived their knowledge of glazed ware from this
source. The town of Delft was the centre of these potteries, in which
were fabricated the tiles known in England by the name of Dutch; and the
delft were employed for table services, and for other domestic purposes.
Considered merely with regard to its material, the Dutch potters seem to
have improved on their Italian original, being probably instigated by a
comparison with the blue and white patterns of Nankin, which was now
largely imported by the Dutch from China and Japan, and which is a
coarse, yellowish, porcelain body, covered by an opaque white glaze. In
the ornamental part, however, the Dutch fell immeasurably short of the
potters of Florence; blue seems to have been the only colour employed by
them; and their favourite patterns appear to have been either copies of
the Chinese, or European and Scripture subjects treated in a truly
Chinese manner and taste.

"It is about two hundred years ago since some Dutch potters came and
established themselves in Lambeth, and by degrees a little colony was
fixed in that village, possessed of about twenty manufactories, in which
was made the glazed pottery and tiles consumed in London and in various
other parts of the kingdom. Here they continued in a flourishing state,
giving employment to many hands in the various departments of their art,
till about fifty or sixty years ago; when the potters of Staffordshire,
by their commercial activity, and by the great improvements introduced
by them in the quality of their ware, in a short time so completely beat