DOUCAI
Doucai decorated porcelain began to receive Imperial patronage during the reign of the ming emperor Cheng H’ua. Doucai literally means contrasting colours or contending colours. In Doucai decoration designs were completely outlined in cobalt blue on an unfired vessel and a few areas where a blue wash was put on the piece, then glazed, then fired. It took great skill to put the outline on in underglaze blue because if a mistake was made it could not be changed
After it was fired and glazed the piece was now ready to be decorated in overglaze enamels, basically these were like coloured glass based on the enamels used in cloisonne. The main colours being blue, yellow, green, red/ orange and an aubergine colour. This process could only be done on refined porcelain bodies. This second firing had to be performed at a lower temperature otherwise the overglaze enamels may burn or blister, good kiln technique was required. The enamels then fused on to the porcelain but often the blue may fall away in time as this was the most difficult to get right
During the Cheng H’ua reign it was used on small pieces to tremendous effect, but it fell out of favour as there were other easier techniques which could be used by less skilful potters on poorer porcelain bodies. It found favour again at the end of the transitional period early Kangxi / yongzheng, now the bodies could be fired at a higher temperature and there was better control for the firing temperature of the enamels.
One point to be made is that the blue underglaze decoration could stand up as a full decoration on its own without having to do any of the enamelling that was almost like a luxury
WUCAI
Wucai means 5 colours and was an important development of the mid Ming period from JiaJing onwards (1567 to 1572) like Doucai the pattern was outlined in underglaze dark cobalt blue on the dry body and then fired, then overglaze enamels which were coloured glass as in Doucai were added. The main colours that we used in these five coloured wares were underglaze blue, overglaze enamels in red, green and yellow the body being white these were the original five colours but later other colours could be added into this, so it wasn’t strictly kept at 5 enamels
Wucai had its origins in the Doucai enamel technique but unlike Doucai wasn’t used just for small dainty objects as less proficient decorators could be used with this technique, so it was used on larger pieces including vases and jars. Decoration wasn’t as precise as Doucai with much more free expressive type of design. There was very little graduation in colour, so the depth of enamelling colour remained consistent. This form of decoration is probably better associated with the Emperor Wanli’s reign on wards including the transitional era where it became an outstanding form of decoration especially on some very large pieces, eventually this was going to refine down further and lead into the Famille vert palette more associated with the Qing dynasty and Kangxi in particular.
FAMILLE VERTE
Famille Verte porcelain used the same type of enamels that had been developed during the Ming dynasty but during the Qing Dynasty they were used for superb decoration especially so during the reign of the Emperor Kangxi.
The term Famille Verte comes from the use of many different colours of greens all very distinctive shades that are almost invariably present in the colour scheme
The enamels that were used were various greens, yellow, aubergine, iron red which is rather flat and almost opaque, white this was achieved by allowing the white body to show through a clear glaze when an opaque enamel was applied, and blue, this blue enamel was different from the blue used during the ming dynasty which was more of a turquoise tint blue but now it was more Violet or royal blue in tone
Famille Verte enamels in Chinese are known as Yancai or hard colours. Graduation in colour again was difficult and the effects of shading had to be relegated to finely pencilled lines in the preliminary drawing
Famille verte enamels could be fired onto the biscuit porcelain, but the best effect came when they were fired over the glaze by the Kangxi potters. Kilns could be fired at a higher temperature, so the glaze was incredibly white and clear. The overglaze enamels usually in association with underglaze blue as well all produced stunning work detail and design and reached a new high in quality, but as before the enamels had to be fired at a lower temperature
FAMILLE ROSE
This type of decoration came to the fore during the reign of the emperor Yongzheng, and many consider this era to be the greatest accomplishment of all porcelain decoration. The famille rose palate uses opaque and semi opaque enamels which differ from the earlier overglaze polychrome enamels in two ways the obvious difference being the inclusion of a rose colour hence famille rose. There is the use of a wider spectrum of this colour it could be used for the palest of pink to deep Ruby red. The second difference was the inclusion of a lead arsenic which was used to produce an opaque white pigment which mixed with other colours could modify them enabling the painter to achieve a range of colour values for the first time
To create a rose colour the use of colloidal gold was needed which is why to start with it was used sparingly and on only the very best porcelain, Yongzheng porcelain being the finest produced by the potters at Jingdezhen. There is an argument that the Chinese learnt to use famille rose and the pigments and the colours by copying a European form of the decoration which had been brought to China by the Jesuits having been about on some Viennese ceramics in the 1720s, but in China this type of decoration was fully developed by the 1730s to superb affect