Porcella
Porcella
“The term porcellana for a ceramic appears in 1298 in The book of wonders of the world, Maco Polo …
The ceramics to which Marco Polo was referring had such an appearance of mother-of-pearl, such a translucence, that he naturally gave them the name of the shell that their material evoked. This shell, from the family of cyprus, porcellana, owed its name to a certain resemblance to the vulva of the sow (porcella).
The Latin, with more distinction but for the same reasons, had made the shell concha venera, “shell of Venus”.
Jean Girel A brief history of ceramics 2014