CHINA
i.e. the district comprising the whole north of Africa to the west of Egypt. All this supports the correctness of M. du Sartel's view with reference to the time when the term "porcelain" behan to be applied to the keramic productions of China, and the time when the latter began to find its way to the shores of the Mediterranean. But the story of Ibn Batoutah illustrates another interesting point also. It is quite evident that his description of manufacturing processes can have reference only to glazing material. Even on this hypothesis, his account is inaccurate, though not more so, perhaps, than the account of any ordinary traveller would be. At all events, what is known of the methods pursued by Chinese potters in preparing their choice glazing material, shows plainly that these methods alone attracted the notice of the Arabian tourist—a fact strongly corroborating the conclusions arrived at independently in a former chapter, namely, that during the Sung and Yuan epochs the preparation of glazes occupied the attention of the Chinese potter almost exclusively, the manufacture of a fine, translucid pâte not having been yet included among his tours de force.
If Chinese so-called "porcelain" was exported to India, the north of Africa, and elsewhere, in 1310, it seems more than probable that specimens would have been brought to Europe also by the Venetians, who, from the close of the thirteenth century, carried on a brisk commerce with Asia and Africa. M. du Sartel, with the object of throwing light on this question, has extracted a great deal of interesting information from catalogues of ancient collections in Europe. In an inventory of the possessions of Clarisse de Médicis, he finds it stated that her husband, Lorenzo de Médicis,
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