"Ay, sir: his wife was the rich China-woman, that the courtiers visited so often."—Ben Jonson, Silent Woman, i. 1.
1615.—
"... Oh had I now my Wishes,
Sure you should learn to make their China Dishes."
Doggrel prefixed to Coryat's Crudities.
c. 1690.—Kaempfer in his account of the Persian Court mentions that the department where porcelain and plate dishes, &c., were kept and cleaned was called Chīn-khāna, 'the China-closet'; and those servants who carried in the dishes were called Chīnīkash.—Amoen. Exot., p. 125.
1711.—"Purselaine, or China-ware is so tender a Commodity that good Instructions are as necessary for Package as Purchase."—Lockyer, 126.
1747.—"The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy; which far Exceeds any Thing of the Kind yet Published. By a Lady. London. Printed for the Author, and Sold by Mrs. Asburn a China Shop Woman, Corner of Fleet Ditch, MDCCXLVII." This the title of the original edition of Mrs. Glass's Cookery, as given by G. A. Sala, in Illd. News, May 12, 1883.
1876.—"Schuyler mentions that the best native earthenware in Turkistan is called Chīnī, and bears a clumsy imitation of a Chinese mark."—(see Turkistan, i. 187.)
For the following interesting note on the Arabic use we are indebted to Professor Robertson Smith:—