[Illustration: GREEN FAMILY--"FAMILLE VERTE."
The Vase given as an illustration belongs to the "_famille verte_" class, and deserves careful attention from the fact that it is useful to be able to read off the points in any given piece. Take the shape first. It is a gourd-shaped bottle with spreading mouth. On it are seen three circular panels, called also reserves or compartments. The bottom one, as may be easily seen, contains a basket of flowers with a ribbon on the top. The one on the left is filled with utensils--a word used for this kind of decoration. Note the vases with flowers, the books bound with a filet and the leaf symbol. The other round panel shows a bird on a branch of the peony in flower. Butterflies, &c., are also shown.
The groundwork of the two bulging bodies is a diaper pattern of the most elaborate curl-work, through which runs a conventional pattern of stems, leaves, and flowers of the peony.
Now begin at the spreading mouth and trace the diapers downwards. The first pattern is the "flowered honeycomb," then a small rectangular diaper. Passing to the base of the first bulge, we find a narrow "Joo-e-head" band, below that "flowered octagons and squares," then flowered "triangle-work" in another band. Still more "flowered octagons and squares" follow, having next below a diaper of "treble scale" pattern. Last of all comes alternately a light and dark rectangular pattern. It will be noted that the diapers are broken by small "Joo-e-head" reserves painted with utensils, flowers, and views. Kang-he period. Decoration of the reserves in "_famille verte_."]
_C._--THE POWDERED BLUE, WITH ENAMEL COLOURS.
The powder or powdered blue family has been referred to already and the manner in which the blue is applied has been explained. Though this colour, like the others, had perhaps its rise, and its greatest perfection, in the Kang-he period, yet many specimens of extremely fine quality are ascribed to Yung-ching and Keen-lung. There are, however, no specimens of true powder-blue that belong to any other than the Kang-he period. The art was evidently lost, and when it was attempted, in the reign of the Emperor Keen-lung, the nearest approach was what is known as mazarine blue, which is entirely different, being much heavier in tone and not powdered, and it is these pieces which have "_famille-rose_" decoration, and this places beyond all doubt the period to which they belong. Where the powder-blue has reserves, as is almost always the case, they may be filled with decoration in blue under the glaze, or with "_famille verte_" applied over the glaze. Or again, and in the later periods of Yung-ching and Keen-lung, the various shaped white reserves may have "_famille rose_" decoration. Similar flowers were used in decorating these pieces in reserves, as we have mentioned before. A general test of the older pieces is the presence of the joo-e head, which either ornaments the rims in small panels or is the shape adopted for the large panels. These are decorated with garden landscapes with figures, and official emblems in various colours such as green, yellow, grey, red, and even other blue enamel colours. Other scenes represent the god of longevity presenting the red peach of long life to a child held by a person of rank. Generally, however, the subjects used have decorations varying comparatively little, although the treatment of these subjects differs considerably in the colour scheme.