INTRODUCTION

In 1619 Philip III of Spain visited Lisbon during the feast of Corpus Christi; the chronicler João Baptista Lavanha gave an account of the occasion. During the festival, artisans representing various crafts exhibited their work within arches set up at the entrances to the city's streets. Potters made their presentation at the entrance to the Street of the Misericórdia. It took the form of an arch through which people could pass; the two pedestals of its pillars bore the images of St Justa and St Rufina, the patron saints of the craft, holding coarse red earthenware vessels in their hands. Both sides of the arch were decorated. On the right was a female personification of Nature, crowned with flowers and holding a red vessel and a figure of a man modelled in clay. On the left was a female figure representing Art; she rested her left hand on a potter's wheel, and in her right held a ‘porcelain vase made in Lisbon in perfect imitation of the Chinese’. Above, a small panel depicted a ship arriving from India, unloading Chinese porcelain. In the same scene, several foreign ships loaded Portuguese blue-on-white pottery, whilst other boats, already full, set sail. Below the panel could be read ‘Et nostra perrant’ (And ours go [to various regions]). The product being promoted was Portuguese faience. Some of the themes of this early 17th-century panel, notably the inspiration of Far Eastern porcelain and the wide range of its export trade, are now confirmed by finds from modern archaeological excavations. This type of pottery seems largely to have been exported – not only to many European countries but to Asia, Africa, South and North America.