Doucai

The rest of the design is then added in overglaze enamels of different colours and the piece fired again at a lower temperature of about 850°C to 900°C.

[1] The style began in the 15th century under the Ming dynasty in the imperial factories at Jingdezhen, and its finest products come from a few years in the reign of the Chenghua Emperor, mostly small pieces like the famous Chicken cups.

The Chinese had developed high-fired porcelain, and found two colours that produced good results when painted under the glaze, even when fired at high temperatures.

[12] The doucai technique appeared in the reign of the Xuande Emperor (1426–1435), from which a dish with red and green enamels was excavated at the Jindezhen kilns.

[13] The technique achieved its first and finest flowering in the last years of the Chenghua Emperor, who reigned from 1464 to 1487, but the doucai pieces all date between 1472 and 1487, and are extremely rare.

[17] Chenghua wine cups were already fetching very high prices among collectors during the reign of the Wanli Emperor (1573–1619),[18] and in the 18th century there are various literary references to "chicken cups" as objects of great value, including an episode in Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin (d. 1763), one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China.

[21] The discovery and examination by the archaeologist Liu Xinyuan (劉新園) and his team of a heap of discarded broken porcelains of the Chenghua period at the imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen "revolutionised scholars' knowledge of patterns and forms of doucai".

The colours in Chenghua pieces are the underglaze blue, and overglaze red, green, yellow and an aubergine (eggplant) purple-brown.

The Chenghua examples used successive layers of enamel to represent texture and shading; by imitations from the 18th century, this could be achieved within a single coat.