I think that the obscure problem of the nature of the coloured ware so minutely described by Chinese writers and ascribed by them to early Ming times, and the relation of this ware to the first forms of the _famille verte_ can only find its solution by allowing a wider play to the use of painting on biscuit and subsequent refiring, and that there may probably have existed intermediate stages between the _demi grand feu_ and the fully developed muffle-stove. It is indeed possible that the same pieces may have successively been exposed to both these fires.[101] The curious bowl, of very archaic aspect, lately added to the Salting collection (see note, p. 89), illustrates well the difficulties in accepting as final a decision as to date based upon the nature of the enamel. This bowl bears the nien-hao of Ching-te (1505-21), and may well date from that time, but among the enamel colours over the glaze we find a cobalt blue (of a poor lavender tint indeed); we are told, however, that the use of cobalt as an enamel colour was unknown before the time of Kang-he.[102] Of the many schemes and varieties of decoration that crop up in the course of the eighteenth century as a consequence of the increased palette at the command of the enameller and of the miscellaneous demand for foreign countries, we have already said something. Many important types must remain unmentioned, and some are indeed scarcely represented in our home collections. Of this I will give, in conclusion, a striking instance. In the whole of the great collection at Dresden, now so admirably arranged by Dr. Zimmermann, there is perhaps nothing more striking than the circular stand covered with a trophy of large vases, the decoration of which, though bold in general effect, is entirely built up by fine lines of iron-red helped out by a little gold. These vases, from their fine technique, I should assign to the end of the reign of Kang-he, or possibly to that of Yung-cheng (1722-35). It is a curious fact that by these parallel lines of iron-red an effect is produced at a distance very similar to that obtained by a wash of the _rouge d’or_. Possibly the aim was to imitate that colour. I have seen a similar effect produced by red hatching on some English ware of the eighteenth century. I do not think that this porcelain was made for the Persian market, as has been asserted, for in that case we should find specimens of it in the South Kensington collection.[103] There is, I think, only one example of this ware in the British Museum, and in the Salting collection only a pair of insignificant cups and saucers. On the other hand, in the Dresden collection, whole classes even of eighteenth century wares are unrepresented. I mention these facts to accentuate the vast field covered by Chinese porcelain. It must be borne in mind that the Chinese manufactured for the whole civilised world, and that the taste and fashion in each country influenced, though often very