The colours are not very vivid, but are pleasing and well-contrasted; they are chiefly five--white, blue, yellow, green, and a purplish brown.

Red scarcely appears, except in a very pale, pinkish form; and even in this form it is uncommon.

Blue, on the other hand, is greatly affected, being sometimes used in the patterns, often taken for the ground, and occasionally, in two tints, forming both groundwork and ornamentation.[839] It is not often that more than three hues are found on the same vessel, and sometimes the hues employed are only two.

There are instances, however, and very admirable instances, of the employment, on a single vessel, of four hues.[840] The colours were obtained, commonly, at any rate, from metallic oxides.
The ordinary blue employed is cobalt, though it is suspected that there was an occasional use of copper.

Copper certainly furnished the greens, while manganese gave the brown, which shades off into purple and into black.