porcellana

There was but a little plate or vessel of silver, in comparison of the great pride in other things of this town, because in these hot countries they use much of those earthen disches finely painted or varnished, which they call porcellana, which is had out of the East India; and for their drinking they use glasses altogether, whereof they make excellent good and fair in the same place.

Drake’s Great Armada 1909

Porcelain After the Chinese began transforming kaolin clay into fire-hardened, gleaming white vessels about 1,800 years ago, the Italians dubbed the style porcellana , or porcelain, because it reminded them of shiny cowrie shells.

The China Factor Kelly Crow 2011

Europe, is Italian; _porcellana_ being in that language the name of those univalve shells forming the genus _cypraea_ of the conchologist, which have a high arched back like that of the hog (_porco_, Ital.), and are remarkable for the white, smooth, vitreous glossiness of the surface about the mouth of the shell, and sometimes, as in the common cowry (_Cypraea moneta_), over the whole surface.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 548, May 26, 1832 Various

Why the Roman ladies called it _porcella_, or little pig, because it has a pig's back, is the objective explanation of its name, and how from its gloss that name, or porcellana, was transferred to porcelain, is in books.

The Gypsies Charles Godfrey Leland 1863

“In questa tragica storia d’amore tra due statuine di porcellana, fra gli scaffali di un bric-à-brac un ragazzo povero e consunto si innamora di una bella ragazza, con conseguenze dirompenti.”

No Fat Clips!!! : Damaged Goods: Preview 2008