On-glaze enamels

Examples of some of the low-temperature on-glaze enamels available in Jingdezhen.  To generalize, each of the main types of on-glaze—gucai (or wucai, famille verte), fencai (famille rose), and xincai (“new” or “Western” colors)—are representative of different historical periods in Chinese ceramics (respectively: late Ming/transitional, Qing, and Republican).  And although each of these types might traditionally only use a limited color palette (for instance wucai means “five colors” but initially included only red, green and yellow enamels), there exist a tremendous amount of variation in color throughout history and in the shops of Jingdezhen.