Famille rose (French for "pink family") is a type of Chinese porcelain introduced in the 18th century and defined by pink overglaze enamel. It is a Western classification for Qing dynasty porcelain known in Chinese by various terms: fencai, ruancai, yangcai, and falangcai. The colour palette is thought to have been brought to China during the reign of Kangxi (1654–1722) by Western Jesuits who worked at the palace, but perfected only in the Yongzheng era when the finest pieces were made, and famille rose ware reached the peak of its technical excellence during the Qianlong period.
Although famille rose is named after its pink coloured enamel, the colour may actually range from pale pink to deep ruby. Apart from pink, a range of other soft colour palettes are also used in famille rose. The gradation of colours was produced by mixing coloured enamels with 'glassy white' (玻璃白, boli bai), an opaque white enamel (lead arsenate). Its range of colour was further extended by mixing different colours.
Famille rose was popular in the 18th and 19th century, and it continued to be made in the 20th century. Large quantities of famille rose porcelain were exported to Europe, United States and other countries, and many of these export wares were Jingdezhen porcelain decorated in Canton, and are known as "Canton famille rose". Porcelains with famille rose palette were also produced in European factories.
Terms
The term meaning "pink family" was introduced together with ("green family") in 1862 by Albert Jacquemart to classify Qing dynasty porcelain by their colour palettes. This is still the term most commonly used, although various other terms originating from Chinese are also used. Recent Chinese sources may use these terms in the following manner:
Falangcai (, lit. 'enamel colours') refers to overglaze enamel porcelain produced at the workshops within the Forbidden City itself in Beijing. The word falang meaning "enamel" may have come from the word for the "Franks" or "foreign", and falangcai originated as an attempt to apply the enamel colours used in metal wares such as cloisonné onto porcelain. Falangcai wares were produced at the palace workshops using glazed white porcelain from Jingdezhen, which were then painted with enamels and fired at a relative low temperature in muffle kilns. As these wares were produced in small workshops at the Imperial Palace and intended only for its exclusive use, they are consequently rarer than other types of famille rose porcelain. There may be only around 400 surviving pieces of falangcai around the world. The term falangcai, however, may apply to other enamel colours and need not refer exclusively to famille rose. Yangcai (), lit. 'foreign colours') is a type of porcelain produced at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen. According to Tang Ying who supervised the production of porcelain at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, it was initially created in imitation of falang style of painting. Visually there may be little difference in appearance between falangcai and yangcai wares produced for imperial use, but differences may be detected in the chemical composition of the flux used. Fencai () meaning 'powdery colours' or 'pale colours' in reference to its pastel shades, is the term commonly used in Chinese to describe famille rose porcelain. Fencai is the more modern term used by Chen Liu (陈浏) in the early 20th century and it is often used in place of yangcai in Chinese. Ruancai ( / ), 'soft colours') is a term from the Yongzheng era as the colours used are softer in contrast to the 'hard colours' (硬彩, yingcai) used to refer to famille verte or wucai.