“ A careful examination of the most authentic Palissy productions shows that they excel in the sharpness of their modelling, in a perfect neatness of manufacture and, above all, in the subdued richness of their general tone of colour. The crude greens, bright purples and yellows are only found in the works of his imitators; whilst in the marbled colours on the backs of the dishes Palissy's work is soft and well fused, in the imitations it is generally dry, even harsh and uneven. ”

“ In Palissy's time pottery covered with beautiful white tin-enamel was manufactured at many centres in Italy, Spain, Germany and the South of France, and it is inconceivable that a man so travelled and so acute should not have been well acquainted with its appearance and properties. What is much more likely is that Palissy saw, among the treasures of some nobleman, a specimen of Chinese porcelain, then one of the wonders of the European world, and, knowing nothing of its nature, substance or manufacture, he set himself to work to discover the secrets for himself. ”

“ The tragedy of it all is that Palissy not only failed to discover the secret of Chinese porcelain, which we assume him to have been searching for, but that when he did succeed in making the special type of pottery that will always be associated with his name it should have been inferior in artistic merit to the contemporary productions of Spain and Italy. His first successes can only have been a superior kind of "peasant pottery" decorated with modelled or applied reliefs coloured naturalistic ally with glazes and enamels. ”