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Lot Essay
Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1 November 1999, lot 399.
The festive nature of the 'Hundred Boys' design brings much animation and vivacity to the composition on these vases. The subject of boys or of children was very popular on decorative arts of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Traditionally, they represent the wish for abundant offspring, or in particular, sons, and wealth. This theme can be found on several Qianlong vases, similarly rendered as on the present lot, with boys at play within a garden scenery against a mountainous backdrop.
A comparable lantern-shaped vase with Qianlong mark is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Falangcai, Fencai: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 132; while a baluster-shaped vase is also illustrated ibid., pl. 121; a pair of large famille rose and underglaze-blue vases with the same subject-matter was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 267; and another lantern vase of this design was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain, Nanjing Museum and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 87.
The festive nature of the 'Hundred Boys' design brings much animation and vivacity to the composition on these vases. The subject of boys or of children was very popular on decorative arts of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Traditionally, they represent the wish for abundant offspring, or in particular, sons, and wealth. This theme can be found on several Qianlong vases, similarly rendered as on the present lot, with boys at play within a garden scenery against a mountainous backdrop.
A comparable lantern-shaped vase with Qianlong mark is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Falangcai, Fencai: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 132; while a baluster-shaped vase is also illustrated ibid., pl. 121; a pair of large famille rose and underglaze-blue vases with the same subject-matter was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 267; and another lantern vase of this design was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain, Nanjing Museum and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 87.