Delft, Number of Fabriques.--Haarlem.--Paste.--Great Painters.--Violins.--Tea-Services.--A Dutch Stable.--Broeck Dutch Tiles.--England.--Queen Elizabeth.--Pepys's Diary.--Brown Stone-ware.--The Tyg.--Lambeth Pottery.--Fulham Pottery.--Elers.--Elizabethan Pottery.--Stoke-upon-Trent.--Josiah Wedgwood.--Cheapness.--Queen's-ware.--Jasper-ware.--Flaxman. --Cameos.--Basalt.--The Portland Vase.--Prices. There was a day (about 1650) when the Dutch town of Delft had fifty manufactories of earthen-ware, and employed in them over seven thousand people. To-day she has but one--if even that--and the work done there has sunk into insignificance. To those who are fond of change, of excitement, this will be a pleasant fact to know; it goes to show that Macaulay's prophecy, that the coming New-Zealander will sit on the piers of London Bridge in the "good time that is coming," and moralize over the ruins of London, may come true--pleasanter for the New Zealand _savant_ than for the English statesman! Haydn's "Dictionary of Dates" states that pottery was made at Delft as early as 1310; and there are records of its importation from there into England in the time of King Henry IV. (1399 to 1413). The great industry was undoubtedly stimulated by the close knowledge of Japanese and Oriental porcelains which the Dutch merchants at a very early day and for so long a time had access to; which they brought to Holland in such large quantities, and which by them were distributed over Europe. But the cost of these was, of course, very considerable for those times; and the discovery of good clays in Holland gave the Dutch every facility for engaging in the manufacture, which they had the wit to seize and the skill to develop; so that they were able to make earthen-ware of good quality, with creditable ornamentation, at comparatively small prices. The Dutch were then the great "traders" of the world. They soon sent this pottery far and wide, into Germany, France, and England; and they got much money for it. Holland grew rich. Haarlem was also a centre for this industry; but it made less impression there than at Delft, and went down sooner; so that but little is known of it. The _paste_ of the Delft, or at least some of it, is of a fine quality, so that it was worked quite thin, and yet preserved sufficient strength for use. To make this, a good deal of pains and skill was applied to it before it went to the deft hand of the modeler. Of course, the great production at Delft was for the uses of the table, and its work did much to effect a revolution in the household-art of the table. Before this production the plates and dishes of the common people were of wood or "tre;" often only a square bit of board upon which the meat could be laid and cut. The better-off people had plates of pewter, and kings and princes indulged in those of silver. Boitet, writing in 1667 of Delft, says: