Lot 3635. A fine white jade 'Boys' group, Qing dynasty, 18th century; 4 1/8 in. (10.4 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 2,500,000 - HKD 3,500,000. Price Realized HKD 9,620,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011. 

Well carved in the round with a larger central figure, modelled with a cheerful expression on his round face, holding a stalk of millet and wearing a beribboned coin inscribed Tianxia taiping, 'Peace under Heaven', flanked on each side by a smaller boy, one carrying a lantern and the other with a ruyi and a large artemesia leaf curling to the underside and front of the group, the creamy-white stone with areas of russet inclusions, stand, box. 

Provenance: Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 22 May 1985, lot 310
The Alan and Simone Hartman Collection, Part I, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1414.

Literature: R. Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 180.

Exhibited: Christie's New York, 13-26 March 2001
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003 - December 2004.

Note: The depiction of children, and in particular, boys, can be found in various media in Chinese art including painting, porcelains, lacquer and jade carvings. They symbolise a wish for many children, but more significantly, many sons. The stalk of millet in the present carving plays on the pun for He, meaning 'harmony', and this theme is reinforced by the inscription on the cash-coin, which itself represents wealth. In total, the motifs here encompass many auspicious themes, making the piece a highly appropriate wedding or birthday gift.

Christie's. The Imperial Sale, Hong Kong, 1 June 2011