Plate 106.—K’ang Hsi famille verte Porcelain. Alexander Collection.
Fig. 1.—Dish with rockery, peonies, etc., birds and insects. Diameter 16¼ inches.
Fig. 2.—“Stem Cup” with vine pattern. Height 5¾ inches.
Plate 107.—Famille verte Porcelain made for export to Europe. K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722). British Museum.
Fig. 1.—Vase with “sea monster” (hai shou).
Fig. 2.—Dish with basket of flowers. Mark, a leaf. Diameter 11 inches.
Fig. 3.—Covered Jar with ch’i-lin and fêng-huang (phœnix).
The lateness of this latter date and the use of the word “delicacy” in the description of the piece lead us naturally to that peculiarly refined type of late famille verte in which the ware is of eggshell thinness, the painting extremely dainty and delicate, and the colours rather pale but of perfect purity. Such are the well-known “birthday plates” with the reign mark of K’ang Hsi on the back and the birthday salutation in seal characters on the border: wan shou wu chiang—“a myriad longevities without ending!” They are reputed to have been made for the Emperor’s sixtieth birthday which fell in the year 1713, but the story is supported by no evidence of any kind, and they would have been equally appropriate for any Imperial birthday. The character of these wares is more suggestive of the Yung Chêng period, and it is probable that they belong to the extreme limit of the long reign of K’ang Hsi. To this period then we shall assign these and the whole group of kindred porcelains, the plates with designs similar to those of the “birthday plates,” but without the inscribed border, the small eggshell plates with one or two figures painted in the same delicate style, others with a single spray of some flowering shrub almost Japanese in its daintiness, and occasional bowls and vases with decoration of the same character. See Plate [113].