A RARE LARGE MING BLUE AND WHITE 'HUNDRED BOYS' JARS, guan, painted to the exterior with a continuous scene of boys at play, with one child playing with a marionette, others playing musical instruments including the flute and the drum, another riding a hobby-horse before an attendant carrying a lotus-leaf parasol, all above a cloud band beneath the shoulder and between two lotus meander scrolls, the neck with a band of alternating ruyi-heads each enclosing circular motifs (rim chips repaired, old break restuck), encircled Jiajing six-character mark and of the period

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

Details

A RARE LARGE MING BLUE AND WHITE 'HUNDRED BOYS' JARS, guan, painted to the exterior with a continuous scene of boys at play, with one child playing with a marionette, others playing musical instruments including the flute and the drum, another riding a hobby-horse before an attendant carrying a lotus-leaf parasol, all above a cloud band beneath the shoulder and between two lotus meander scrolls, the neck with a band of alternating ruyi-heads each enclosing circular motifs (rim chips repaired, old break restuck), encircled Jiajing six-character mark and of the period
27cm. high

Lot Essay

Jars of this pattern with flattened shoulders featuring a lotus scroll are rarer than those with rounded shoulders featuring boys engaged in scholarly pursuits and other games in a garden terrace; cf. an example in the Freer Gallery of Art illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol.9, no.111; another, Sekai Toji Zenshu Shogakukan Series, vol.14, pl.72; also pl.211 for a covered example. Examples of jars with the more popular design of children at play beneath trellis and ogival panels enclosing floral spray are illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C.Ko Tianminlou Collection, pl.35

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