Among our specimens we find more of the English than the Dutch Delft. The latter, which is the original ware, took its name from the town of Delft, where the ware was first produced, and which, for several centuries, continued to be the chief center of the Delft industry. Although it was probably made as early as the latter part of the fifteenth century, but little is known of it until about one hundred years later. Its origin was an attempt on the part of Dutch potters to imitate, in a cheaper form, Chinese and Japanese wares. At that time were made large importations of Eastern wares, and Holland, as the only European power allowed a port by Japan, had a great variety of types to copy. The first potteries were established at Delft about the year 1600, and almost from its inception the industry was protected by a trust. For nearly one hundred and fifty years, the protection of this trust or "Guild of St. Luke" made Delft an important manufacturing center, giving employment to nearly one twelfth of its inhabitants. The best examples of this old Dutch Delft are beautiful copies of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, which are hardly distinguishable from the Oriental. A fact worth noting in connection with the rapid rise and great popularity of Delft is that the combination or Guild which was instrumental in the prosperity of the industry was also at least partly responsible for its downfall. In Holland, an independent maker could not flourish, but the progressive English made it very well worth while for workmen to emigrate. There was another and perhaps more potent factor in the decline of the Dutch Delft industry; the very success of Delft potters became their ruin. The market was glutted with their products, and there ceased to be the same demand for it as formerly. Gradually, the English ware, made of better clay, although cheaper in price, supplanted the Dutch ware, even in Holland, and as early as 1760 the struggle for existence began among the Dutch potteries. Of the thirty establishments existing in the beginning of the century, only eight were working in 1808, and most of these soon after stopped. The most common pieces made, in point of numbers, were the Delft plates. Some excellent examples of these are found in the Page collection at Newburyport, one, a peacock plate, being a good example of Dutch Delft in one of its most popular patterns. Another shows the design of a basket of flowers, and this same adornment is on an old English platter, a piece that deserves not only a compliment to its beauty, but also a tribute to its Dutch-English durability, since within a few years it has been used to hold all of a New England boiled dinner.