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
Pinxton Porcelain Pinxton Porcelain Pinxton Porcelain was a porcelain works created by John Coke and William Billingsley in Pinxton in Derbyshire, England. Pinxton Porcelain was founded on land at the head of the Cromford canal rented from the Reverend D'Ewes Coke's third son who went into business with the businessman and porcelain painter William Billingsley. Billingsley who had been trained at the Derby works is now renowned for the quality of his porcelain painting particularly his flower painting but he was also interested in perfecting a porcelain recipe which it is thought he obtained from Zachariah Boreman. Billingsley eventually left Pinxton and