清十八世紀

The young boy depicted probably refers to the legendary child prodigy, Jia Chang (b. AD713) who at the age of thirteen was already a talented trainer of fighting cockerels; and was employed to train cockerels to fight in the Tang imperial court. A similar theme is found on Qianlong period cermics such as the Qianlong inscribed famille rose cup sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 31 May 2010, lot 1892.