Most of what passes for delftware in Holland today is a mere shadow of the tin-glazed earthenware created during its golden age and is not made in the original way. "So much is from China or Taiwan and is not even hand-painted," says Ella B. Schaap, curatorial associate for Dutch Ceramics at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The irony of the Asian provenance is not lost on anyone knowledgeable in ceramics history: "Delftware began as a Dutch imitation of Chinese porcelain," writes Stephen J. Van Hook in his book Discovering Dutch Delftware, and "the Chinese are now making Chinese imitations of Dutch imitations of Chinese porcelain."

Original delftware came out of potteries in Delft, Holland, in the 1600s and thrived in the world marketplace through the 1700s. Termed "antique delftware" to distinguish it from the modern delftware of the late 19th century onwards, its many utilitarian and decorative forms are escalating in value at today's ceramics auctions.

Its remarkable trajectory began with a technique for tin-glazing earthenware that arrived in Holland from Italy by 1550. The Dutch discovered that the glaze hid the red clay body of their pottery with an opaque, glossy white and provided the ideal surface for decorative painting. This "Netherlands majolica" satisfied local markets until the Dutch began regular importation of Chinese Ming Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain through the newly established Dutch East India Company, and the growing middle class couldn't get enough of it.

Dutch potters then began attempts to refine the majolica to compete with the thinner, lighter, blue-painted porcelain. When potteries around Delft improved their glazing, clay quality, and pigments to match the Chinese blue, delftware was born. After a civil war in China interrupted porcelain exports, delftware flourished as a substitute. At peak production, around 1700, Delft supported more than 30 potteries.

In the early 18th century, the palette expanded to keep pace with the resumed Chinese porcelain trade that introduced famille verte (green) and famille rose (pink). "Today, antique polychrome is rarer than blue-and-white because it was more expensive to make, and therefore, less of it was produced," says Letitia Roberts, former head of Sotheby's European ceramics department.

Delftware declined after a German scientist discovered the secret to making porcelain in the early 1700s. Only one 17th-century Delft pottery, De Porceleyne Fles, still exists, and its modern production has altered the antique clay and glazes.

Pottery marks can sometimes identify which company made a piece and when, but "the attribution of many marks is uncertain," writes Van Hook. Finding the antique is an adventure, especially in a market with such a range of quality and production. "Learning about delftware isn't an expensive undertaking, and collecting it needn't be either," says Roberts. "Collectors can begin in a modest way, and as their knowledge increases, so can the acquisitions -- in number, quality, and rarity."