A mere glance is all that is necessary to bestow upon the ancient pottery of Spain before we resume the history of the Moorish fabrications in that country. Valencia is the centre to which the greatest antiquity must be accorded. Pliny alludes to Saguntum, now called Murviedro, as having twelve hundred potteries, and Martial is not stinted in his praises of their work. All the remains found there are of the Roman period, and are classed under red Samian ware, and three other groups, of which one was of a yellowish color and another of pale terra-cotta. From that time we must make a great leap across the chasm between the downfall of Roman civilization and the first Saracenic occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century. Even then there is little to guide research. Arabian azulejos have been met with, and in 1239, four years after the Moorish kingdom of Granada had been founded, a charter was granted by James I. of Aragon to the Saracen potters of Xativa (San Felipe) relieving them from servitude on payment yearly of one besant for each kiln. We have no means of identifying the early works of these Saracenic workmen, and it is not until 1517 that they are referred to in literature as producing well-worked and well-gilded faiences, more highly esteemed than any other of Spanish manufacture. Several writers of the sixteenth century praise the Valencian pottery, but in the beginning of the seventeenth century it began to decline. Christian designs (Fig. 191) take the place of Moresque; and at the present day, according to Marryat, the metallic-lustred wares of Manises, near Valencia, are made by an innkeeper, who thus spends the time lying heavy on his hands by reason of a lack of guests in his inn. In the olden time the pottery of Manises was exchanged with Italy for that of Pisa, and was ordered by “the Pope, cardinals and princes admiring that with simple earth such things can be made.” Such is the difference between now and then. [Illustration: Fig. 191.--Spanish Majolica. Dark-blue and Brown Painting on White. (J. W. Paige Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)] From the style of the decoration it would appear that most of the Valencian remains are to be attributed to the Christian period, _i. e._, after the thirteenth century. The general color is yellow with mother-of-pearl lustre. St. Catherine and St. John were highly venerated in Valencia, and this veneration appears in the frequency of their representation, either actually, or by their emblems, or in invocations and passages from the gospel of the fourth evangelist. The eagle--the emblem of St. John--and the opening words of his gospel appear also, however, on wares from Malaga and Majorca; and, further, the yellow lustre was produced at Barcelona. It is, therefore, evidently unsafe to ascribe, after an examination of general characteristics, individual specimens to a specific source. [Illustration: Fig. 192.--The Alhambra Vase.]