A few stray Delft wanderers may be found in Massachusetts and New Hampshire—meat dishes and plates, pale and ugly, as if the journey inland had faded them out. On Long Island, Delft is still kept and used in Dutch families—it is not the oldest Delft, however, nor is it much prized. The typical Delft vases, decorated in blue, yellow, and white, once graced the high mantel or beaufet of many a low, comfortable Dutch farm-house in Flatbush, New Utrecht, and Gravesend, and occasionally one can still be found. A fine set is in the old “pirates’ house” at Flatlands. The Dutch made many teapots, we are told, but I have never found an old Delft one in America. I have seen a few dull blue and white Delft flower-pots—possibly one hundred years old—clumsy, ugly things, whether old or new. I wish I could drive through the old Dutch settlements on Long Island—New Utrecht, and Flatlands, and New Lots, and Gravesend—and ransack the great, spacious garret of every concave-roofed story and a half farm-house I passed. I know I could bring many a piece of Delft to light—forgotten and unheeded by its stolid owners. That Delft was not very highly prized by the Dutch settlers, nor by their descendants, may be proved by many inventories and lists, such as this, of the estate of John Lefferts, of Flatbush, made in 1792: £ s. 25 Pewter plates (1s. each) 1 5 37 Earthen plates 10 9 Pewter dishes 1 15 8 Earthen dishes 1 6 Sets china cups and saucers 3 27 Delft plates 13 Pewter was plainly much more valued than Delft, and India china was still more highly prized. [Illustration: Delft Tea-caddy.] Old Delft tea-caddies are both curious and pretty. Here is one shown, marked with the names “Aalta Evert and Gerrit Egben” and the date, 1793. It was doubtless a wedding or betrothal gift. In this piece the dark blue decoration is under the glaze, and the red and black quaint Dutch-dressed figures and the inscription are over the glaze, and were doubtless painted to order and fired when the piece was purchased for a gift or token. This labor-saving device was brought to perfection by a Dutch potter named Zachary Dextra, though the cunning Chinese and Japanese had employed it when they held supremacy over the Dutch market. If a skilled painter painted under the glaze, an inferior workman could easily do the finishing touches over the glaze.