In order of the discovery of the colours next comes violet from manganese, and the yellows from cadmium and iron, creating a new series, which is termed the yellow family, "_la famille jaune_." All these yellows were enamel colours, but they were not often used alone. Sometimes there is a combination of two groups, as green and yellow or green and red. These have been classified as "_jaune verte_" and "_rose verte_." We simply refer to these names in case any of our readers should come across them in the descriptive catalogue or in books dealing with Oriental porcelain. Perhaps the most beautiful of all the enamel colours applied to Oriental porcelain is the rose, a red derived from gold. Bearing in mind that we are roughly tracing the age of the colours, that is, the period of their application, this rose red would bring us to the Yung-ching and Keen-lung periods. Enriched as the Chinese potters were by this superb tint, they simply revelled in dominating their productions with it. It is classified as the rose family, "_la famille rose_." To these periods belong the beautiful class of pink back plates, to which further reference will be made later.
Onward from this time, the trading relations between Europe and China becoming more and more intimate, foreign influences began to make themselves felt in the Chinese potteries; in fact, the Europeans demanded and paid for European shapes and European designs, so that European subjects were reproduced with more or less fidelity, and "armorial" porcelain, on which the arms or crests of European families were painted in enamel on vases, table services, and decorative pieces of various kinds.
At this period, too, we find evidences of the influence of the Christian missionaries in China, as shown by the religious subjects enamelled or painted on plates, such subjects, for instance, as "The Crucifixion" and other scenes of biblical history. We have stated that the decoration was modified to meet the wants of the European market, and we note also that the various shapes were also modified to suit that market. The Chinese used saucer-shaped dishes, but these were largely replaced, for exportation only, by dishes and plates with rims, so that we finally reach the last class, the porcelain called "East India Company" china, decorated with subjects not armorial, nor scriptural, but European. The Chinese themselves were faithful copyists, imitating exactly the pattern from which they had to work. We shall deal with this subject more fully in a later chapter.