types among the examples, which for the reasons given on page 83 we may safely assign to the Ming period. The first is distinguished by a pure but pale blue, and the design (generally somewhat sparingly applied) is carefully drawn with a fine brush. This, it would seem, was the ware imitated by the Japanese at the princely kilns of Mikawaji. The other type is distinguished by the depth and brilliancy of its colour, the true sapphire tint, differing from the later blue of the eighteenth century, in which there is always a purplish tendency. There are some good specimens of this type in the British Museum, but we will take as our standard a jar at South Kensington about twelve inches in height (PL. XIX.). The remarkable thickness of the paste in this vase shown in the neck, which has at some time been cut down, the marks of the junction of the moulded pieces of which it was built up, the slight patina developed in the surface of the glaze, are all signs that point to an early origin. But what is above all noticeable is the jewel-like brilliancy of the blue pigment with which the decoration--a design of _kilin_ sporting under pine-trees--is painted. When we come to the reign of Wan-li (1572-1619), to which time we may assign the beginning of the direct exportation to Europe of Chinese porcelain, a period of decline has already set in. The rare pieces of blue and white so prized in Elizabethan and early Stuart days are in no way remarkable either in their execution or in their decoration.