CHAPTER X K’ANG HSI POLYCHROME PORCELAINS Broadly speaking, the polychrome porcelains of the Ming and K’ang Hsi periods are the same in principle, though they differ widely in style and execution. The general types continued, and the first to be considered is that in which all the colours are fired in the high temperature of the large kiln, comprising underglaze blue and underglaze red, and certain slips and coloured glazes. Conspicuous among the last is a pale golden brown commonly known as Nanking yellow, which is found in narrow bands or in broad washes, dividing or surrounding blue designs, and is specially common on the bottles, sprinklers, gourd-shaped vases, and small jars exported to Europe in the last half of the seventeenth century. The golden brown also darkens into coffee brown, and in some cases it alternates in bands with buff crackle and pale celadon green. A deep olive brown glaze is sometimes found as a background for ornament in moulded reliefs which are touched with underglaze blue and red. A fine vase of this type is in the Salting Collection, and a good example was given by Mr. Andrew Burman to the British Museum. Both seem to be designed after bronze models. But the central colour of this group is undoubtedly the underglaze red. Derived from copper it is closely akin to the red of the _chi hung_ glaze, and both were conspicuous on the Hsüan Tê porcelain, both fell into disuse in the later Ming periods, and both were revived in the reign of K’ang Hsi. I have seen two examples of this colour in combination with underglaze blue bearing the hall mark _chung-ho-t’ang_, and cyclical dates corresponding to 1671 and 1672 respectively. In neither of these pieces, however, was the red very successful, and probably the better K’ang Hsi specimens belong to a later period of the reign. It was, however, always a difficult colour to fire, and examples in which the red is perfectly developed are rare. As a rule, it tends to assume a maroon or dark reddish brown tint.