851.—"There is in China a very fine clay with which they make vases transparent like bottles; water can be seen inside of them. These vases are made of clay."—Reinaud, Relations, i. 34.
c. 1350.—"China-ware (al-fakhkhār al-Sīnīy) is not made except in the cities of Zaītūn and of Sīn Kalān...."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 256.
c. 1530.—"I was passing one day along a street in Damascus, when I saw a slave-boy let fall from his hands a great China dish (ṣaḥfat min al-bakhkhār al-Sīnīy) which they call in that country sahn. It broke, and a crowd gathered round the little Mameluke."—Ibn Batuta, i. 238.
c. 1567.—"Le mercantie ch'andauano ogn'anno da Goa a Bezeneger erano molti caualli Arabi ... e anche pezze di China, zafaran, e scarlatti."—Cesare de' Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 389.
1579.—"... we met with one ship more loaden with linnen, China silke, and China dishes...."—Drake, World Encompassed, in Hak. Soc. 112.
c. 1580.—"Usum vasorum aureorum et argenteorum Aegyptii rejecerunt, ubi murrhina vasa adinvenere; quae ex India afferuntur, et ex ea regione quam Sini vocant, ubi conficiuntur ex variis lapidibus, praecipueque ex jaspide."—Prosp. Alpinus, Pt. I. p. 55.
c. 1590.—"The gold and silver dishes are tied up in red cloths, and those in Copper and China (chīnī) in white ones."—Āīn, i. 58.
c. 1603.—"... as it were in a fruit-dish, a dish of some threepence, your honours have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes."—Measure for Measure, ii. 1.
1608-9.—"A faire China dish (which cost ninetie Rupias, or forty-five Reals of eight) was broken."—Hawkins, in Purchas, i. 220.
1609.—"He has a lodging in the Strand for the purpose, or to watch when ladies are gone to the China-house, or the Exchange, that he may meet them by chance and give them presents...."