The designs as shown in the illustration are typical of the ware. [Illustration: PLATE 77 Two examples of Ming Blue and White Porcelain in the British Museum Fig. 1.--Ewer of thin, crisp porcelain with foliate mouth and rustic spout with leaf attachments. Panels of figure subjects and landscapes on the body: “rat and vine” pattern on the neck and a band of hexagon diaper enclosing a cash symbol. Latter half of the sixteenth century. Height 7 inches. Fig. 2.--Octagonal stand perhaps for artist’s colours. On the sides are scenes from the life of a sage; borders of _ju-i_ pattern and gadroons. On the top are lions sporting with brocade balls. Painted in deep Mohammedan blue. Mark of the Chia Ching period (1522–1566). Diameter 4¾ inches.] A freely drawn figure of a man or woman usually in garden surroundings, standing before a fantastic rock or seated by a table and a picture-screen often form the leading motive, though this is varied by landscape, floral compositions, spirited drawings of birds (an eagle on a rock, geese in a marsh, a singing bird on a bough), or a large cicada on a stone among plants and grasses. The borders of dishes and the exteriors of bowls are divided into radiating compartments (often with the divisions lightly moulded) filled with figures, plant designs, symbols, and the like, and separated by narrow bands with pendent jewels and tasselled cords, which form perhaps the most constant characteristics of the group. Small passages of brocade diapers with swastika fret, hexagon and matting patterns, are used to fill up the spaces. The finer examples of this group are of admirable delicacy both in colour and design; but the type lasted well into the seventeenth century and became coarse and vulgarised. It appears in a debased form in the large dishes which were made in quantity for the Persian and Indian markets, overloaded with crudely drawn brocade diapers and painted in dull indigo blue, which is often badly fired and verges on black. The central designs on these dishes, deer in a forest, birds in marsh, etc., usually betray strong Persian influence.