c. 1343.—"... ghomerabica, vernice, armoniaco, zaffiere, coloquinti, porcelláne, mirra, mirabolani ... si vendono a Vinegia a cento di peso sottile" (i.e. by the [cutcha] hundredweight).—Pegolotti, Practica della Mercatura, p. 134.
c. 1440.—"... this Cim and Macinn that I haue before named arr ii verie great provinces, thinhabitants whereof arr idolaters, and there make they vessells and disshes of Porcellana."—Giosafa Barbaro, Hak. Soc. 75.
In the next the shells are clearly intended:
1442.—"Gabelle di Firenze ... Porcielette marine, la libra ... soldi ... denari 4."—Uzzano, Prat. della Mercatura, p. 23.
1461.—"Porcellane pezzi 20, cioè 7 piattine, 5 scodelle, 4 grandi e una piccida, piattine 5 grandi, 3 scodelle, una biava, e due bianche."—List of Presents sent by the Soldan of Egypt to the Doge Pasquale Malepiero. In Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, xxi. col. 1170.
1475.—"The seaports of Cheen and Machin are also large. Porcelain is made there, and sold by the weight and at a low price."—Nikitin, in India in the XVth Cent., 21.
1487.—"... le mando lo inventario del presente del Soldano dato a Lorenzo ... vasi grandi di Porcellana mai più veduti simili ne meglio lavorati...."—Letter of P. da Bibbieno to Clar. de' Medici, in Roscoe's Lorenzo, ed. 1825, ii. 371.
1502.—"In questo tempo abrusiorno xxi nave sopra il porto di Calechut; et de epse hebbe tãte drogarie e speciarie che caricho le dicte sei nave. Praeterea me ha mandato sei vasi di porzellana excellitissimi et grãdi: quatro bochali de argento grandi cõ certi altri vasi al modo loro per credentia."—Letter of K. Emanuel, 13.
1516.—"They make in this country a great quantity of porcelains of different sorts, very fine and good, which form for them a great article of trade for all parts, and they make them in this way. They take the shells of sea-snails (? caracoli), and eggshells, and pound them, and with other ingredients make a paste, which they put underground to refine for the space of 80 or 100 years, and this mass of paste they leave as a fortune to their children...."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. 320v.
1553.—(In China) "The service of their meals is the most elegant that can be, everything being of very fine procelana (although they also make use of silver and gold plate), and they eat everything with a fork made after their fashion, never putting a hand into their food, much or little."—Barros, III. ii. 7.