Delft

a city of Holland. It is situated on a level plain eight miles northwest of Rotterdam. It is intersected by canals crossed by half a hundred bridges. Present population, 44,000. Delft was once a fortified city, the seat of the Orange family, whose burial place is here. It is noted as the place of the manufacture of Delft pottery during the fourteenth century. The ware was made of a clay found here. It was ground, mixed, and allowed to ripen. It was then molded on the potter's wheel and partially burned. An enamel made of sea kelp, sand, lead, and tin, with cobalt for blue, was brought to the consistency of thick paste and then applied. The delicate ware was then inclosed in coarse pottery to protect it from smoke, and was kilnburned. Old Dutch ware of the Delft sort is prized highly by collectors. See Pottery