Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 November 2012
A fine small famille rose lobed jar and cover, Jiaqing iron-red six-character seal mark and of the period (1796-1820)
Lot 2203. A fine small famille rose lobed jar and cover, Jiaqing iron-red six-character seal mark and of the period (1796-1820); 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 700,000 - HKD 1,000,000. Price realised HKD 1,940,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2012
The tapering body is moulded with six lobes and painted with a scene of a soldier and eight boys at play in a garden setting, between blue ruyi bands bordering the lotus scroll-decorated pale lime-green bands on the shoulder and above the foot. The domed cover is similarly decorated below the bud finial. All of the interiors and the base surrounding the reign mark are covered in turquoise enamel, box.
Provenance: Robert Chang Collection
Sold at Christie's New York, 24 March 2004, lot 258
Literature: An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 2-14 June 1993, Catalogue, no. 98.
Exhibited: An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 2-14 June 1993, no. 98.
Note: The subject of boys at play was very popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and represents the wish for abundant offspring, or in particular, sons, and wealth. This type of decoration is usually arranged as a continuous frieze with the boys in a garden setting, as on this unusual small lobed jar. For a bowl with Jiaqing mark decorated with this theme see Zhongguo taoci daxi; Qingdai taoci daquan (Chinese Ceramic Series; Qing Dynasty Ceramics), Taipei, 1987-89, p. 352. A similar delicate style of painting can also be seen on a Jiaqing-marked famille rose armrest painted with a boy bringing books to a scholar seated beneath a pine tree, illustrated by H.A. Van Oort, Chinese Porcelain of the 19th and 20th centuries, The Netherlands, 1977, p. 22, pl. 10.