Lot 3739. A fine large coral-ground famille verte 'boys' bowl, Jiaqing six-character sealmark and of the period (1796-1820); 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 700,000. Price Realized HKD 1,460,000. © Christie's Images Ltd. 2011  

The bowl is potted with wide rounded sides rising from a straight foot, the exterior well enamelled and gilt on a coral-red ground, with four groups of four boys gathered playing and engaged in leisurely pursuits beside rocks and plantain on a continuous fenced garden terrace, the rail posts, surrounding trees and vegetation picked out in gilt, the interior and base with a transparent glaze, box. 

Property of the Yiqingge Collection.

Note: The elaborate and highly amusing 'boys at play' theme on the present bowl is typical of the Jiaqing period. The earliest representation in this format can be found on a Yongle blue and white bowl exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, 1987, illustrated in the catalogue, no. 15. The prototype for this particular design, however, is found on bowls dating to the Kangxi period. A similar bowl with a Kangxi mark is illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics IV, Hong Kong, 1995, pl.104. A pair bowls of identical design from the Qianlong period is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Japan, 1987, pl. 952.

Jiaqing examples include the bowls included in the Exhibition of Ch'ing Polychrome Porcelain, Oriental Ceramic Society, 1977, no. 100, subsequently sold at Christie's London, 13 December 1982, lot 528; one included in The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, 1986, no. 93; and another, illustrated by Avitable, From the Dragon's Treasure, Chinese Porcelain from the 19th and 20th Centuries in the Weishaupt Collection, p. 37, fig. 32. Two similar Jiaqing-marked bowls were sold at Christie's Hong Kong, the first from the Robert Chang Collection was sold, 28 November 2006, 1312; and the other, 29 May 2007, lot 1380.