Saucer decorated with a beauty in the garden

Porcelain decoration with coloured enamels started to develop in China towards the end of the Ming dynasty. At first, so-called “five colour porcelains” were painted in underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze enamels of four colours. In the Kangxi era of the Qing dynasty, porcelain of the so-called green family (famille verte), painted over the glaze in enamels of prevailingly green shades, followed. Among the export products earmarked for the European market in the 18th century, famille verte was superseded with what is known as rose family (famille rose) porcelain.