The Moors arc supposed, on the conquest of Spain, A.D. 711, to have introduced into Europe the use of glazed tiles from Asia, similar tiles having been found in the mosque at Medina, A.D. 707, and in the early churches of Pisa, Pavia, and Sicily ; but none of these tiles azulejos, found fir the Alhambra, appear to be earlier than A.D. 1300, and are made of a pule clay covered with a white enamel, on which a pattern has been stamped or painted in blue and brown, and covered with a atannifereue glaze. Three classes of plates and other vessels of a fayence enamelled with white or yellow ground, on which are shields of the kings of Spain, cyphers, arabesques, and ornaments, are supposed to have been made by Moorish potters from the 13th to the 15th century. They are distinguished by the cupreous iridiscence of the glaze. But enamelled vessels, of a date even earlier, have been found in England, either the works of English or foreign potters. The principal sites of Spanish pottery were Talavera, Valencia, and Trai' in Andalucia.
The custom of bringing home enamelled plates, bacini, by the Crusaders, and the conquest of Majorca by the Pisans in A.D. 1115, introduced the tin glazes into Italy, which are supposed to have been first used by Lucca della Robbie, A.D. 1415-1420, who made scriptural subjects in high relief ; and tiles of glazed ware, prin cipally white, although other colours, as yellow, blue, green, and violet, were also used by him and his family till A.D. 1560. The name of Majolica, from the island whence it had first come, and of Raffaelle, from the great artist who supplied some of the designs, has been given to this ware. The early kind from A.D. 1540 to 1560, called mez--a majolica, ornamented with arabesques, coats of arms, busts, and portraits, is distinguished for the brilliancy of its colour and the iridescence of its madreperla glaze, the ruby tint being peculiar to the products of Pesaro and Gubbio, and supposed to have been invented by Maestro Giorgio. The porcellana or finer ware subse quently introduced is remarkable for the excellence of its paintings made from the designs by Raffaelle, Marc Antonio, and others, of scriptural and classical subjects, in light but harmonious colours. The ware declined from 1560, and in 1574 the ducal establishment of Urbino was suppressed, the art haring been up to that period fostered by the dukes of Urbino. This ware was introduced into Faenza, Forli, and Rimini. The principal shapes are the piatti di pompa or plates, but flasks and bottles for the ducal spezieria, and pilgrims' bottles were also made. The subjects are often accompanied by explanatory inscriptions, the objects, date of vase, and initial of the potter, being generally placed on the back. The principal artists were Maestro Cencio and Orazio Fontana. The ware continued to be pro duced in Italy at Naples, Castelli in the 16-17th century, and at Siena, Savona, and Urbania, till the 18th century.
The manufacture of Majolica was introduced into France by Catherine de Medici, A.D. 1590, and flourished at Avignon, Nevers, St. Cloud, and Rouen till the close of the 17th century ; but the ware peculiar to France was that of Palisay, invented by the celebrated potter of that name at Saintee, am. 1555, who from beholding an enamelled cup of Majolica or Nuremberg, after many years of laborious and unsuccessful experiments, made vases of a gray paste covered with a hard enamel and painted with bright and varied colours, chiefly cold in tone, and ornamented with fish, reptiles, flowers, and other objects, moulded from nature, found in the vicinity of Paris. His
principal works were dishes, piices rustiques, thus ornamented for sideboards, stands or basins, tiles, dishes, and jugs ornamented with religious and other subjects in relief. The art was continued by his family, but with leas taste and excellence. Besides the Palissy ware a peculiar fayence called that of Henry II., consisting of a glazed hard paste of pipe clay covered with a transparent glaze, appears to have been made about that period in France. It is peculiar for sten cilled patterns of mixed colours, with a predominance of yellow ochre, often with moulded figures, while encaustic tiles similar to those made in England were manufactured in France in the 13th century, and a glazed ware is supposed to have been made at Beauvais in the 14th century.
In eat 1278 a glazed ware is said to have been made in Alsace ; and in the 15th century Ratittbon, Landshutt, and Nuremberg produced vessels with a green glaze. In AM. 1503 Majolica ware was introduced into Nuremberg, and flourished chiefly in Franconia till the 16th century. Tiles of this ware were made till the middle of the 17th century ; the same kind of ware of coarse and bad paste was made at Strasbourg and Frankenthal, and a very fine ware of this kind was produced at Hochat, but the style was abandoned in the middle of the 18th century for porcelain. At Cologne and Mansfield a fine clear paste with thin enamel, and at Wagram, and in Hungary, majolica, was manufactured. A fine enamelled ware is still said to be made at Pop plesheim. The German ware is very different from the French and Italian in style and colour and shape, which are quaint and peculiar, chiefly of floral designs : animals were often moulded for drinking cups. In A.D. 1310, Delft in Holland is said to have manufactured pottery, and during the I4th and 15th centuries produced vessels and enamelled tiles. After the separation of Holland from Spain towards the close of the 16th century, A.D. 1579, the potters copied with great success the shapes, drawings, and glaze of Japanese porcelain, and pro duced an imitation of oriental, which from its thinness, lightness, and cheapness commanded the European market till tho beginning of the 18th century, but rapidly declined in the 19th, having been superseded by the English. Chinese porcelain was also imported into Holland and England. Like the French and Italian wares the Delft has the initials or monogram of the potters placed on it. In Holland and Flanders also were manufactured in the 16th century jugs of stone ware with a bearded head in relief on the neck and coats of arms on the belly, nicknamed gray-beards or Bellarmines, in derision of the Cardinal, and of a gray or mottled brown colour ; and were made in Holland and at Cologne, and a fine kind of tankard called Jacobus Kannetje, of an unglazed yellowish paste, stamped with reliefs from copper moulds, were fabricated on the lower Rhine and in Holland by the celebrated Jacqueline, Countess of Ilainault, AM. 1433. This stone ware was glazed by salt, and some of the blue vases are the finest products of the German potteries, which flourished till the beginning of the 17th century, and are known as the Flemish stone ware.