Lot 1360. A green-decorated yellow-ground 'Boys' bowl, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 5 13/16 in. (14.7 cm.) wide. Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 80,000. Price realised USD 111,750. © Christie’s Image Ltd 2013. 

Finely potted with rounded sides rising to a slightly flared rim, the exterior is incised and glazed in bright green against a yellow-ground with eight boys dancing and playing musical instruments in a terraced garden between two pine trees, between a lappet border above the foot and a stylized floral band beneath the rim. The interior is also glazed yellow.

Note: Yongzheng bowls of this design, with a similar decorative band at the rim, are illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, no. 103; by J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics, The Koger Collection, London and New York, 1985, no. 121; and in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, vol. 2, pl. 203. A closely related Yongzheng-marked bowl of this type was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 3200. For a bowl of this type, with the alternate border, see the example in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum illustrated by R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, on the front cover.

Christie’s. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 19 - 20 September 2013