The subject of infants at play is an exceptionally popular decorative theme even as early as the Song dynasty; compare for example the Cizhou pillow in the Hebei Provincial Museum, painted in slip with a young boy holding a fishing rod by a riverbank, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, vol. 2, no. 180. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the designs appear carefully executed in cobalt blue, highly elaborate, and more amusing. The theme expanded to depict children playing with toy hobby horses, spinning tops and kites, playing games like blind man's buff, and domestic scenes like having a bath. It is uncertain whether the scenes are individually designed or inspired by woodblock prints, although it is known that paintings of children at play were prolific during the Southern Song period and well represented by the 12th century court artist, Su Hanchen. An example of Su's painting of two children in a garden scene is in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, included in the exhibition The Treasured Paintings and Calligraphic Works, 1996, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 37. Children regularly appear as decorative themes on porcelain and on women's robes from the late 15th century, indicative of a wish for sons.

Compare with a related unusually large (30.7 cm. diam.) Jiajing-marked 'boys' bowl with steep sides formerly from Sir Harry Garner collection, included in the exhibition Ming Blue-and-White Porcelain, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1946, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 68, and illustrated again by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, no. 82. Compare also earlier designs on bowls of boys at play from the Chenghua period, illustrated by Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no. 49, and the example in the Percival David Foundation, exhibited in Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration, Catalogue, 1992, p. 56, no. 47.

(US$25,000-40,000)