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
Gustavsberg porcelain from the 1900s. The Museum Director is Kjell Lööw. ^ [a b c] ^ Svensk uppslagsbok, Malmö 1932 ^ Tusenkonstnären Stig Lindberg, Gisela Eronn, kapitel "Serviser för folkhemmet", Gustavsberg porcelain Gustavsberg is a Swedish porcelain company that originated in 1826. It broke up in the 1990s and was sold off in pieces, to the dismay of residents of the Gustavsberg area, but artisans continued producing ceramics and household porcelain in the Gustavsberg tradition. One of Gustavsberg's most famous collections is the "Nobel Porcelain" produced in 1994. One such artisan was Josef Ekberg, who, even as a young man, created many