gin, dating from about 1550, with decorations in coloured enamels
which are prevented from flowing together by a strong outline incised in
the clay.

_Stoneware_.--The most important feature of the history of German
pottery is the development of stoneware along the valley of the Rhine.
This ware is of a highly refractory white or grey body of intense
hardness, glazed by the introduction of salt into the kiln when the
highest temperature was reached. It was exported in large quantities
through the markets of Cologne and Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) to England,
France and other parts of northern Europe. The frequent occurrence in
its decoration of the arms of foreign cities and princes shows that the
German potters were alive to the requirements of foreign customers.

The oldest centre of this manufacture seems to have been at Siegburg
near Coblenz, where the white stoneware peculiar to the neighbourhood,
made from local clay, must have been made and exported in considerable
quantities at least as early as the 15th century; plain beer-jugs of
that date with cylindrical neck and slightly swelling body have been
unearthed in London and the eastern counties of England. In the 16th
century an artistic development took place, and the potters were formed
into an exclusive gild under stringent regulations. The manufacture
lasted till the sack of the town by the Swedes in 1632, subsequent
attempts to re-establish it being unsuccessful. This ware, of a creamy
white colour, generally thinly glazed and only rarely coloured by
staining with cobalt blue, is decorated by impression with small stamps
or by the application of reliefs pressed from separate moulds. The
motives include sacred and classical figure subjects, portraits of
contemporary sovereigns, and armorial bearings, with accessory foliage
in which a survival of Gothic feeling is often perceptible.
Characteristic forms are the high tankard (_Schnelle_) and the ewer with
long spout (_Schnabelkrug_), but the fancy of the potter also found
expression in various quaint or extravagant forms.

At Raeren in the duchy of Limburg this industry attained importance
about 1550, and was continued for over seventy years; 1539 is the
earliest date known to occur on this ware. The pieces were of two kinds,
brown-glazed and grey; the latter usually decorated with blue. The
favourite form is a baluster-shaped jug with heraldic designs or a
frieze of figures round the middle. The subjects are fr