Virtual Pottery.
Chinese court taste long favoured monochrome wares, and although the Yuan dynasty saw blue and white porcelain accepted by the court, more fully polychrome styles took much longer to be accepted. Initially blue from cobalt was almost the only pigment that could withstand the high temperature of a porcelain firing without discolouring, but gradually (mostly during the Ming period) others were found, or the extra cost of a second firing at a lower temperature to fix overglaze enamels was accepted.