CHAPTER VII

THE IMPORTANCE OF PORCELAIN 203–235

Rise of Dutch Taste in Decorative Art—Influence of Foreign Trade in the Dutch Home—Accounts of Porcelain by Mediaeval Travellers: Edrisi, Ibn Batuta and Shah Rukh—Quotation from Pigapheta—A Great European Collection—Monopoly of Trade by the Portuguese—Quotation from Pyrard de Laval— Portuguese Carracks—Voyages to Goa and Japan—Porcelain and Cabinets—Mendoza’s Description of Earthenware—Dutch and English Merchants—Presents to Queen Elizabeth—Dutch Expeditions and Establishment of the Dutch East India Company—Embassy to the Emperor of China in 1655— Descriptions of the Manufacture of Porcelain—Manufacture and Potters of Delft—Quotation from d’Entrecolles on Porcelain and Oriental Trade—Prices—Tea—Tea-drinking—A Dutch Poet on the Tea-table—Chrestina de Ridder’s Porcelain—Prices of Porcelain in 1653.