The best china-ware was obtainable in Amsterdam only, and English travellers used to buy porcelain there, as they now go to Brussels or Mechlin for lace or Cashmere for shawls. As late as the reign of Charles II, Holland maintained her pre-eminence in this trade. In Henry Sidney’s _Diary_, November 18, 1679 (on the eve of his departure for Holland) we read: “My sister Sunderland spoke to me for a China cup.” Later he notes: “I went to see the magazine, the East India Stores.” We have already seen the prices of various kinds of porcelain in Holland in 1653 and 1689. It may be interesting to compare these with English prices earlier in the century. From the bill of lading of the _Java_ (1615) we gather that the prime cost of porcelain was: “Saucer dishes, nearly 2_d._ a piece; flat sallet dishes, about 3½_d._; sallet cups, 3½_d._; posset dishes, 4_d._; small (quarter) basins, 1_s._ 9_d._; larger (half) basins, 2_s._ 6_d._; largest (whole) basins, 5_s._” This was evidently china-ware of the cheapest kind, and the prices show that porcelain was now on the market in such quantities as to drive out the old pewter plates and dishes from the homes of the middle classes as well as the aristocracy. During the first quarter of the seventeenth century, however, the Oriental wares to be found in opulent houses were by no means confined to china-ware. The art furniture brought from the East was varied and choice. The inventory of a Dutch or English noble of wealth of that period shows the same taste for Eastern fabrics, lacquer and porcelain, and evidences the elegance that made Madame de Rambouillet famous in France. As an example, let us take the Earl of Northampton, who was famous and infamous in late Elizabethan and early Jacobean days. He died in 1619. Among his possessions we find the following goods of Oriental manufacture: