These porcelain dishes are decorated in the 'famille rose' style. The quatrefoil panel in the centre displays a lady combing her hair while her lady-in-waiting looks on. Four blue enamel floral cartouches alternate with red ornamental panels. Often called ' fencai' meaning 'soft colours', Chinese famille rose refers to a group of porcelain wares decorated predominantly with opaque overglaze rose pink coloured enamel with gold as its colourant. White enamel, known as 'white glass' was later introduced into the enamel palette to dilute the other colours and provide an opaque white ground for colour painting.Famille-rose enamels were first introduced during the Kangxi period (1662-1722) on imperial wares. The most delicately painted and best quality famille-rose porcelain were produced from the Yongzheng period (1723-1735) mostly for export to Europe.
