During the early seventeenth century, Dutch potters produced brightly coloured tin-glazed earthenware for the local market. The technology to make this type of ceramics had been imported from Italy via Antwerp during the sixteenth century. Popular motifs on Italian pottery such as birds and running hare were also adopted in the North. During the first half of the seventeenth century this type of colourful tableware was used alongside the much more expensive blue and white imports from China.