There are, besides, a number of types specially prevalent among the export porcelains, some purely Chinese in origin, others showing European influence. Take, for example, the well-known saucer dish with mounted figures of a man and a woman hunting a hare--a subject usually known as the “love chase”--a free and spirited design, rather sketchily painted in pale silvery blue. The porcelain itself is scarcely less characteristic, a thin, crisp ware, often moulded on the sides with petal-shaped compartments, and in many ways recalling the earlier type described on p. 70. It is, however, distinguished from the latter class by slight differences in tone and finish which can only be learnt by comparison of actual specimens. It is, moreover, almost always marked with a _nien hao_ in six characters, whereas marks on the other type are virtually unknown. The _nien hao_ is usually that of Ch’êng Hua, but an occasional example with the K’ang Hsi mark gives the true date of the ware. A quantity of this porcelain was brought up by divers from wrecks of old East Indiamen in Table Bay, among which was the _Haarlem_, lost in 1648,[282] though most of the ships were wrecked at later dates. It is a thin and sharply moulded ware, often pure eggshell, and the blue varies from the pale silvery tint to vivid sapphire. The usual forms are of a utilitarian kind--plates, saucer dishes, cups and saucers, small vases and bottles, jugs, tankards, and the like--and the designs are not confined to the “love chase,” but include other figure subjects (e.g. a warrior on horseback carrying off a lady,[283] and various scenes from romance and family life), floral designs, deer, phœnixes, fish, birds, etc., and perhaps most often the tall female figures, standing beside flowering shrubs or pots of flowers, which are vulgarly known as “long Elizas,” after the Dutch _lange lijsen_ (see Plate 92, Fig. 2). Graceful ladies (_mei jên_) are familiar motives in Chinese decoration, but this particular type, usually consisting of isolated figures in small panels or separated from each other by a shrub or flowerpot, and standing in a stereotyped pose, are, I think,[284] peculiar to the export wares of the last half of the seventeenth century. This same type of thin, crisply moulded porcelain was also painted with similar designs in _famille verte_ enamels over the glaze. It has a great variety of marks, the commonest being the apocryphal Ch’êng Hua date-mark, while others are marks of commendation,[285] such as _ch’i chên ju yü_ (a rare gem like jade), _yü_ (jade), _ya_ (elegant), and various hall-marks. [Illustration: PLATE 90 Covered Jar for New Year gifts, with design of blossoming prunus (_mei hua_) sprays in a ground of deep sapphire blue, which is reticulated with lines suggesting ice cracks: dentate border on the shoulders Height 10 inches. _Victoria and Albert Museum._]