This unusually large bowl is related to a small group of similarly painted bowls found in important public collections around the world. A smaller (18.5cm. diam.) but comparable example is illustrated by J.A.Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, pl. 60, no. 29.431, decorated with three scholars and two attendants by a palace amidst clouds; another in the Freer Gallery, Washington (20.4cm.) is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kodansha Series, vol. 9, no. 226, and depicts figures in a rock garden by the "The Three Friends of Winter"; a third in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art (20.5cm. diam.) is illustrated in ibid, vol. 6, no. 119.

Pope discusses this group in op. cit. pp. 109-110 and suggests that the design of figures in landscapes is related to several Xuande period bowls with figures in Daoist paradises. In the catalogue entry for pl. 60 he notes that in the library of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art there is an album of drawings of selected porcelains from the collection of Lo Chen-yu, amongst which is a similar bowl bearing a Chenghua six-character mark. In his note 225, p.110 he refers to the present lot and comments on its large size.

Scenes of figures enjoying scholarly pursuits can be seen on jars of the same period. An example is illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, vol. I, no. 790; another was sold in our London Rooms, 12 June 1989, lot 175