Page 451 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINESE PORCELAIN IN WEST

received certain porcelain vases from the ruler of Persia

in 1487. The maritime laws of Barcelona, dating from
the same epoch, also show that porcelain was among the

objects imported from Egypt. At a still earlier date,
1440, Jean de Village, a commercial agent of Jacques

Coeur, was employed by the Sultan of Babylon to
carry three bowls and a plate of Chinese porcelain

to Charles VII. Great interest is said to have been

excited in France by these objects, and it can scarcely

be doubted that little time was suffered to elapse be-

fore a fresh supply of similar pieces was procured.

On the other hand, the difficulty or trafficking in

such a fragile material has to be remembered : the

Cape of Good Hope route had not yet been discov-

ered, and Oriental porcelain coming to Europe must

have been transported on the backs of camels across

the desert. The information that one might expect

to derive from catalogues of early collections is

greatly obscured by the double signification attaching
"
to the term porcelain." When, indeed, mention is

made of vases, plates, dishes, and goblets of "
with handles, covers, and so forth porce-
"
of silver or
lain

gilt bronze, it is scarcely possible to imagine that the

material of which these pieces were manufactured

could have had anything to do with shell. Never-

theless, there are obstacles to full belief in M. du

Sartel's conclusion that " or keramic pro-
porcelain,"

ductions of the Orient, constituted an important item

in the collections of European virtuosi from the mid-

dle of the fourteenth century. The decorative de-

signs on several of the specimens described in the

catalogues quoted by M. du Sartel are essentially

European. Some of these designs are on the metal

mountings of the specimens, but some appear to be

VOL. ix. 24 369