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Lot Essay
Vases of this impressive size and decorated in this rich palette of enamels are very rare. Two comparable Qianlong period examples include a vase enamelled with ladies in a palace garden and auspicious emblems at the ruby-ground neck, from the collection of Lady Wantage, is illustrated by R. L. Hobson, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1915, vol. 2, pl. 132; and another with a 'Hundred Boys' landscape scene below a graviata ruby-red ground neck was sold at Christie's New York, 3 December 1992, lot 350.
The festive nature of the 'Hundred Boys' design brings much animation and vivacity to the composition on the present vase, and others like it. The subject of boys, or of children, was very popular in the 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 a number of Qianlong vases, similarly rendered as on the present lot on a smaller scale, with boys at play within a garden scenery against monumental mountains in the distance view.
The quality and style of painting is very close to a smaller version of the present vase, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 October 2003, lot 641. Cf. also a similar lantern-shaped vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Falangcai, Fencai, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 132; a baluster vase of this design is also illustrated ibid., pl. 121; a pair of large famille rose and underglaze-blue vases sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 267; and another lantern vase with the 'Hundred Boys' subject-matter, 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 the present vase, and others like it. The subject of boys, or of children, was very popular in the 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 a number of Qianlong vases, similarly rendered as on the present lot on a smaller scale, with boys at play within a garden scenery against monumental mountains in the distance view.
The quality and style of painting is very close to a smaller version of the present vase, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 October 2003, lot 641. Cf. also a similar lantern-shaped vase in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Falangcai, Fencai, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 132; a baluster vase of this design is also illustrated ibid., pl. 121; a pair of large famille rose and underglaze-blue vases sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 267; and another lantern vase with the 'Hundred Boys' subject-matter, included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain, Nanjing Museum and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 87.