anese, have given
us our finest specimens of gres, some of them having designs of
imitation jewels upon them; and others decorations of beautifully
colored enamels. Next to these Oriental varieties Germany has always
excelled in the making of gres. There is a great scope for artistic
expression in this ware, a far broader range for merit than in many
others."

"So it was this salt glaze that England took up, was it?" ruminated
Theo.

"Yes. You see, up to this time very little glazed ware had been made
in England, for until the Dutch traders came with their Chinese and
Delft wares the English had been cheerfully using, as I told you,
unglazed clay, wood, pewter, and on rare occasions silver dishes. Even
the ladies of Queen Elizabeth's household felt no shame to eat from
wooden dishes. As for knives and forks--nobody used those! Every one
ate with his fingers. Think how primitive it must have been to go to a
banquet of the Lord-Mayor of London arrayed in your silk or velvet
costume, and eat roasted ox with your fingers from a trencher, or
square slab of wood! Yet such a procedure was considered entirely
proper in those days."

Theo was much amused.

"Afterward for quite a long time dishes of brown stoneware were in
vogue; and then as an improvement on those came a coarse
greenish-yellow type of ware. It was about 1645 that into England
strayed a few Dutch potters who began to make a reproduction of Delft
pottery. In the meantime in quite another part of the country a
salt-glazed stoneware of far better quality than any previously
manufactured made its appearance. To this the name _porcellane_ was
given, and although the product was in reality simply a gres the fact
is interesting because it is the first time that we have the word
applied to china. It probably came from the Italian noun _porcellana_,
meaning a shell, which the thinness of the new ware may have
suggested; or the term may have been derived from the French word
_pourcelaine_, a word used for any material from which a sculptor
models his statues. We are not certain which of these theories is
correct. Nevertheless we have the name, although at this particular
date it was incorrectly applied."

"But the English had nothing at that time but pottery to give the name
to," objected Theo.

Mr. Croyden chuckled.

"Exactly! So they shouldn't have used the term at all," he said,
"because they have confused a lot of good people since then. From this
period on