Porcelain styles, and there are several modern industrial manufacturers. These exported Chinese porcelains were held in such great esteem in Europe that in English "china" became a commonly–used synonym for the Italian term "porcelain". The first mention of porcelain in Europe is in "Il Milione" by Marco Polo in XII sec. Apart from copying Chinese porcelain in "faience" (tin glazed earthenware), the soft-paste Medici porcelain in 16th-century Florence was the first real European attempt to reproduce it, with little success. Early in the 16th century, Portuguese traders returned home with samples of kaolin, which they discovered in China to be essential
Coalport porcelain keep up the pace of production. The technique was widely adopted by other manufactories during the 19th century. At The Great Exhibition (London 1851) an elaborate Coalport table service with deep borders of mazarin blue was shown; it had been commissioned by Queen Victoria as a gift to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. The Coalport porcelain manufactory, the first porcelain factory in the Ironbridge Gorge, England, was founded by the practical and enterprising John Rose in 1795. Financial support was provided by Edward Blakeway (1720-1811). John Rose had probably trained at the Caughley porcelain manufactory, less than a mile away