The Italian writers assert that the use of lead--the _plumbiferous glaze_--was applied in Urbino as early as 1300. Why need we doubt it? At Pesaro it reached its perfection about 1540. The common earthen or red ware of the country was dipped into a _slip_ or "_engobe_" of white clay; then it was dried or baked; then painted, and afterward covered with a thin skin of lead-glaze, which was fixed with the fire. The colors used in decorating these pieces were few, being mostly yellows, greens, blues, and black. This lead-glaze was soft, but it had a sort of metallic, iridescent lustre, which is one of its peculiarities and beauties. It is almost useless to attempt with the engraving to express fully the characteristics of this ware; the colors we cannot give. One piece (Fig. 65) will serve to show the kind of design often used, which bears unquestioned testimony to its Moorish parentage. This finer work seems to have been made about 1500 to 1550, and at Pesaro. The TRUE MAIOLICA is that which is covered with a glaze made with the oxide of tin and siliceous sand. This _stanniferous glaze_ or enamel takes the place of the "slip" or "engobe," and covers the potter's clay with a clear white enamel, upon which the colors can be laid. The avidity with which the new art was seized upon in Italy by dukes and priests, by workmen and artists, we can hardly comprehend. It would seem that the whole Italian world then rushed into every form of art and literature with an eagerness only to be explained by a desire to make good the Lost Ages--often called the "Dark Ages." Furnaces and potters sprang out of the ground, and almost every good town sooner or later had its "botega." Of these we may mention as among the most noted: Urbino, Gubbio, Pesaro, Castel-Durante, Faenza, Forli, Caffagiolo, Siena, Deruta, Venice, Castelli, besides many others. [Illustration: FIG. 65.--_Mezza-Maiolica._]