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
Capodimonte porcelain figurine groups became large and complicated, still often wearing 18th-century costume. Baskets of flowers made in porcelain became popular, as did pieces in openwork "spagetto". In the 20th century a style of "raggedly dressed peasants of Walt Disney cartoon appearance" developed, along with "a sub-class of earthenware pieces, mostly boxes, of appalling quality with brassy gilding" but still with the crowned "N" mark. Capodimonte porcelain Capodimonte porcelain (sometimes "Capo di Monte") is porcelain created by the Capodimonte porcelain manufactory ("Real Fabbrica di Capodimonte"), which operated in Naples, Italy, between 1743 and 1759. Capodimonte is the most outstanding factory for early