The first use of kaolin in Europe is found for a tableware known as Saint-Porchaire. Saint-Porchaire ceramics are believed to have been produced for sourt consumption, or at least as the result of aristocratic patronage. The shapes attributed to Saint_porchaire are salt cellars, cups, ewers and candlesticks. Deconstruction of this 16th century ceramic technology shows that a kaolinitic clay was fabricated into some of the most complex architectonic constructions ever produced. Assembly of over 50, and sometimes over 150, preformed elements was required for one object. Each object was coated with a lead-silicate glaze and fired to the upper range of earthenware temperatures, about 950° to 1050°C. The poorly sintered, underfired white body was held together by a thin skin of the lead-silicate glaze. Most Saint-Porchaire bodies are so soft that they can be scratched with a fingernail. Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847), Director of the Imperial Manufacture of Porcelain at Sevres, and Louis Alphonse Salvetat (1820-1882), chemist at Sevres, analyzed the composition and method of manufacture of a broken cup lid of Saint-Porchaire. Their interpretation projected a biased point of view and methods of manufacture characteristic of post-industrial revolution production onto the pre-industrial craft production of a workshop. -- CAL