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Lot Essay
Images of boys at play, originally rooted in Buddhist and Daoist traditions, became a popular secular motif by the Tang dynasty as auspicious symbols of fertility, family continuity, and prosperity. The theme appeared across Tang decorative arts and grew especially popular on Song and Jin ceramics. Depictions of larger groups of children emerged in the early Ming dynasty on rare Yongle-period porcelain bowls and became a favored decorative subject during the Xuande and Chenghua reigns, remaining popular throughout the Ming dynasty and beyond.
The Chenghua Emperor, who came to the throne at the age of eighteen, was greatly concerned about his lack of a male heir. His favorite and most powerful consort, Lady Wan Guifei was some seventeen years older than the emperor, and, after losing her own child, was determined that none of his other consorts would usurp her position by producing an heir to the throne. She therefore took drastic measures to ensure that no other woman in the palace gave the emperor a son. Eventually one consort, Lady Qi, succeeded in hiding her pregnancy and sequestered her son until he was five years old to protect him from Lady Wan. The child survived to succeed the Chenghua Emperor, taking the reign name Hongzhi (1488-1505). Aware only of his lack of male heirs, particularly in the latter part of his reign, the Chenghua Emperor favored decoration that included auspicious messages regarding sons and grandsons.
This design has been found on Chenghua-marked bowls excavated from the Imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen, including an example in the exhibition The Emperor’s Broken China: Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, London, 1995, no. 54, and one in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 163, pl. 6:2. A Chenghua-period ‘boys’ bowl from the Raymond F. A. Riesco Collection was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3113.
The Chenghua Emperor, who came to the throne at the age of eighteen, was greatly concerned about his lack of a male heir. His favorite and most powerful consort, Lady Wan Guifei was some seventeen years older than the emperor, and, after losing her own child, was determined that none of his other consorts would usurp her position by producing an heir to the throne. She therefore took drastic measures to ensure that no other woman in the palace gave the emperor a son. Eventually one consort, Lady Qi, succeeded in hiding her pregnancy and sequestered her son until he was five years old to protect him from Lady Wan. The child survived to succeed the Chenghua Emperor, taking the reign name Hongzhi (1488-1505). Aware only of his lack of male heirs, particularly in the latter part of his reign, the Chenghua Emperor favored decoration that included auspicious messages regarding sons and grandsons.
This design has been found on Chenghua-marked bowls excavated from the Imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen, including an example in the exhibition The Emperor’s Broken China: Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, London, 1995, no. 54, and one in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 163, pl. 6:2. A Chenghua-period ‘boys’ bowl from the Raymond F. A. Riesco Collection was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3113.