The third class has the ornament partly rendered in coloured enamels, and has golden yellow armorial bearings, interlacings, and foliage. Animals, such as antelopes, sometimes occur. This ware is the carefully executed work of the fifteenth century. During the first years of the sixteenth century the third class of ware was probably imitated by the Italians.
The process of the manufacture of lustred earthenware was introduced into Italy by Arabian or Spanish workmen from the Balearic Isles.
Fig. 11.—Hispano-Moresque Vase. (S.K.M.)
A beautiful vase of elegant shape with large perforated handles in Hispano-Moresque, decorated with ivy or briony leaves and tendrils, is in the Kensington Museum (Fig. 11).
A curious shaped tile from the Alhambra is shown at Fig. 12, the decoration of which is purely Saracenic.
Fig. 12.—Alhambra Tile. (S.K.M.)
Scaliger (1484-1558) tells us that a costly fayence, as beautiful as the pottery of India, was made in his time in the island of Majorca and exported to Italy; he also adds that the name “Maiolica” or Majolica was derived from Majorca.
The island of Majorca was an Arab possession until the year 1230, and no doubt the Arabs had there founded potteries for the production of glazed earthenware.