In the middle and later 19th century, Italian potteries looked to their illustrious past for inspiration, particularly to the renaissance, as did potteries in other countries. During the 1870s the Museum acquired a group of such ceramics to represent the skills of relatively less well-known factories in Italy in centres like Cortona, Gubbio and Florence. Such potteries made close imitations very much in the same spirit as the 15th and 16th century originals which were their inspiration. It was often described as 'old maiolica ware'. The fashion for this type of 'historicism' was widespread across western Europe and in Britain.