Porcelain bowl with underglaze blue decoration. This deep bowl is finely potted with rounded sides and a low foot ring. It is exquisitely painted in blurred tones of bright cobalt blue beneath a yellow-tinged glaze characteristic of Chenghua period porcelains. Inside it is plain except for a double blue line edging the rim. Outside there are scenes of children playing in a garden. One boy, dressed in a three-quarter-length robe with leaf sprays, probably representing cassia, in his hair, rides a hobby horse. He is attended by another two boys wearing babies' bibs, one holding a lotus leaf like a parasol, the other a fly whisk. In the next group a child holds a brush-pen in one hand and a cassia spray in the other. He is flanked by further children sitting cross-legged and behind a boy wearing split pants points to the sky. In another scene a child is watering an object which appears to be a mandala or residence for the Buddha; he is attended by two boys who have abandoned their symbols and bells on the ground and two others, dressed in split pants and baby clothes, approach. Beyond the garden fence are mountain peaks and a lotus pond. In another scene four children are shown surrounding a large fish bowl. One child dressed in split pants holds a fish in his left hand, another points away and two others have their hands in the water grappling for more fish. The base is glazed but not marked.

This bowl may be dated by stylistic comparison to a smaller bowl with an everted lip painted in underglaze blue wlth sixteen children playing in a garden and with a Chenghua mark which was excavated at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. The subdued blue tones and yellow-tinged glaze are typical of the porcelain of the Chenghua era. These illustrations of children playing relate to images of 'One Hundred Children' which appear on a range of decorative objects -ceramics, lacquer wares and jades - as well as in paintings. In Confucian philosophy, many children, but particularly many sons, were essential for the fulfilment of family and ancestral duties, rites and ceremonies. Illustrations of 'One Hundred Children' represent a desire for fertility, wealth and happiness. The Chenghua emperor, Zhu Jianshen (1447-87), who ascended the throne at eighteen years of age, was certainly preoccupied with his lack of sons. His favourite consort, Lady Wan Guifei, was seventeen years his senior. Having lost her own child, she ensured that no other woman in the palace gave birth to an heir by sending a eunuch to administer poison to the pregnant consorts. Finally Lady Qi, a woman of Yao origin, managed to protect her son. He was hidden until he had reached the age of five and he then survived to succeed to the throne as the Hongzhi emperor.