Italian potters brought the art of making tin-glazed tiles to the Low Countries in the early sixteenth century. Native potters copied the technique and in the seventeenth century they began to manufacture the distinctive blue and white Dutch tiles. Huge quantities were produced during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, first in the Netherlands and later in Britain. Because the best tiles and other tin-glazed pottery came from Delft, the name of the town became associated with this ware. This book traces the history of delftware tiles, describes how they were made and explains the differences between Dutch and English delftware tiles.
