Book excerpt: The history of early English delftware is also the first chapter in the chronicle of Britain's modern ceramic industry. To collectors of English pottery, examples of seventeenth-century delftware provide uninhibited splashes of color unequaled among the wares of later years; to this historical archaeologist reaching into the shadows of the past, shattered delftware dishes, mugs, porringers, and even chamber pots provide lanterns to light his way.