The Dresden collection is peculiarly rich in this kind of _san ts’ai_, but though two or three of the specimens (Plate 71, Figs. 1 and 2) differing considerably from the rest, are clearly of the Ming period, the great majority are undoubtedly contemporaneous with the forming of the collection, viz. of the K’ang Hsi period. The latter include numerous figures, human and animal, and ornaments such as the junk on Plate 98, besides some complicated structures of rocks and shrines and grottos, peopled with tiny images and human figures. To this group belong such specimens as the “brinjal bowls,” with everted rim and slight floral designs engraved in outline and filled in with coloured glaze in a ground of aubergine (brinjal) purple. There are similar specimens with green ground, and both types are frequently classed with Ming wares. Some of them may indeed belong to the late Ming period,[301] but those with finer finish are certainly K’ang Hsi. They are usually marked with rough, undecipherable seal marks in blue, which are commonly known as shop marks. Some of the figures of deities, birds and animals, besides the small ornamental objects such as brush-washers in the form of lotus leaves and little water vessels for the writing table are of very high quality, skilfully modelled and of material far finer than that described by d’Entrecolles. Fig. 2, Plate 99, a statuette of Ho Hsien-ku, one of the Eight Immortals, is an example. The flesh is in white biscuit, showing the fine grain of the porcelain, white to-day, though possibly it was originally coloured with unfired pigment and gilt as was often the case. The glazes on this finer quality of ware, especially the green and the aubergine, are peculiarly smooth and sleek, and the yellow is fuller and browner than on the kindred ware, enamelled on the biscuit, which we now proceed to investigate. The French term, _émaillé sur biscuit_, is used somewhat broadly to cover the coloured glazes just described, as well as the enamels proper of the muffle kiln. We shall try to confine the expression, “on-biscuit enamels,” to the softer, verifiable enamels which are fired at a lower temperature and in a smaller kiln or muffle. These are, in fact, the same enamels as are used in the ordinary _famille verte_ porcelain painted over the finished glaze, but when applied direct to the biscuit they have a slightly darker and mellower tone, the background of biscuit reflecting less light than the glittering white glaze. [Illustration: PLATE 96 Vase of baluster form painted in coloured enamels on the biscuit. The design, which is outlined in brown, consists of a beautifully drawn prunus (_mei hua_) tree in blossom and hovering birds, beside a rockery and smaller plants of bamboo, etc., set in a ground of mottled green. Ch’êng Hua mark but K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722) Height 16¾ inches. _British Museum._]