Wow, this is p-r-e-t-t-y.....

Tin Earthenware Glazed Dish
Winterthur, Switzerland, AD 1681


From the British Museum online comes this gorgeous find, a tin earthenware glazed dish - I had no idea tin anything was applied to ceramics of any kind, so this just knocked me out! Isn't it pretty? This is how it's done, accroding to the article:

A glaze containing tin oxide is applied to dark-coloured earthenware bodies to produce an opaque white surface, in imitation of porcelain. The glaze can subsequently be decorated with metal oxide pigments. In Europe this technique had originated in Islamic Spain; it had spread to Italy by the fifteenth century and throughout the northern countries by the late sixteenth century. It is known variously as maiolica, faience or Delftware according to the country of origin.