Rick Talbert, age 10, of Asheville, North Carolina, for his question:

Why are dishes called china?

Our early ancestors learned how to make pottery even before they invented writing. Their first dishes were molded from wet clay and baked in the sun. Later they learned how to make earthenware by baking clay dishes in ovens called kilns. In Colonial Days, they coated their earthenware dishes with shiny glazes and often colored them with patterns. These dishes improved as people found more suitable clays and learned better ways to bake them.

Meantime, the potteryf makers of China were way ahead of those in Europe and America. Centuries ago, they learned to make delicate porcelain and other fine pottery. Our old earthenware could not compare with the dishes from China. In the 1700s, the potteries of Europe and America were trying to copy them. The copies were not perfect, but everybody wanted them instead of their rough old earthenware. It seemed logical to call the new dishes chinaware because, after all, it was copied from a Chinese invention.