It will perhaps be better to carry on our hasty historical sketch down to the period of decline at the end of the eighteenth century, before turning to the letters of the Père D’Entrecolles and his account of the great city of the potter--King-te-chen. We shall then be in a better position to understand the almost endless series of different wares that were turned out from the kilns of that town in the eighteenth century. We can finally make a rapid survey of the porcelain of China, picking up many threads that have been dropped in the course of our historical review.
We have seen that the Chinese authorities when describing the coloured ware of the Ming period speak of two ‘triads’ of colours. One, the _turquoise_, purple and yellow group, we have identified with the ware painted on the biscuit and reheated in the _demi grand feu_; while the other, the _green_, purple and yellow class may be regarded as one of the earliest forms of true enamel or muffle decoration. These two classes were now in the earlier days of Kang-he brought to greater perfection, and as by this time we have come to a period when the finer wares began to be largely exported direct to Europe, we meet with many specimens of these wares in our collections.
In the first of these groups the _Turquoise_ is the predominant colour--indeed it is often found alone (PL. IX.). As a monochrome ware it is distinguished by a fine crackle, which is always present but is often only to be seen by a close examination. How much it is sought after by collectors is shown by the fact mentioned by Dr. Bushell, that in the Walters collection there are more than a hundred specimens of this monochrome blue, and of these the majority probably date from the reign of Kang-he. A combination of this turquoise with aubergine purple derived from manganese was in favour at this time not only for the little _magots_ and for small vases, but also for larger decorative pieces as well as for tables and stands for other objects. It was above all this combination that was copied by Zengoro and others for the ‘Oniwa’ ware of the Princes of Kishiu, and some of this Japanese porcelain is very difficult to distinguish from the Chinese original. The aubergine purple, like the turquoise, always finely crackled, is seldom found alone in Chinese examples, but this is often the case on the Kishiu ware. The third colour of the triad, the yellow, is quite subordinate; there were evidently great difficulties in producing a fine tint under the conditions of the _demi grand feu_. In like manner in the early Ming ware, that with the ribbed cloisons, the yellow was only used sparingly for the petals of a flower or for a chain of pearls. It should be noted that this ware of Kang-he differs from its Ming predecessor in the absence of the dark blue glaze.
