Lot 9852. A rare blue and white ‘boys’ ewer, Mark and period of Jiajing; w. 27 cm. Lot Sold 1,408,000 HKD (Estimate 400,000 - 800,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2026
 

Note: The ‘boys at play’ motif was particularly popular during the Ming dynasty, embodying auspicious wishes for familial prosperity. This theme was widely employed across diverse decorative media, including porcelain, lacquer, and textiles.

Framed within peach-shaped panels, one side of the present ewer depicts a cheerful boy wearing an official’s hat riding a hobby horse, attended by three companions acting as servants: one holds a lotus leaf as a parasol, another carries a stool for him to rest upon or to help him mount more easily, and the third announces his arrival with a stick. On the reverse, a boy rides a goat led by another child, while two companions follow, one waving a banner.

Comparable examples include a pair with covers in the collection of the Tokugawa Reimeikai Foundation, illustrated in Min Shin no bijutsu [Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasties], vol. 5, Osaka Municipal Art Museum, Osaka, 1980, cat. no. 1–61. Another covered ewer is in the British Museum, from the collections of Charles Ernest Russell and Sir Percival David (acc. no. PDF,B.617). A further example, lacking its cover, is in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 704. See also an example without a cover, offered at Christie’s London, 16th November 1998, lot 72, from the collections of T. T. Tsui and Marchant.

Lot 9834. A rare blue and white ‘dragon medallion’ handled cup, mark and period of Kangxi; l. 7.5 cm. Lot Sold 448,000 HKD (Estimate 500,000 - 1,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2026
 

Literature: Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 29.
 

Note: Cups of this charming miniature form and painted with dragon roundels are unusual, although a closely related example, with its matching saucer, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang. Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Qing porcelains from the imperial kilns preserved in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, pl. 57. Finely potted cups of this type, with crisp archaistic dragon handles, were also produced with a shallow moulded band of archaistic dragons and covered on the exterior in yellow glaze during the Kangxi period; see one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 164, pl. 147.

Lot 9836. A fine and rare blue and white four-handled meiping, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period; 19.7 cm. Lot Sold 1,792,000 HKD (Estimate 1,000,000 - 2,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2026
 

Provenance: Collection of Edward T. Chow.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 4th May 1994, lot 163.
Christie's Hong Kong, 28th November 2006, lot 1537.

Literature: Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 35.

Note: Vases of this slender baluster form, characterised by a short, wide neck, four loop handles, and a distinctive deep footring pierced with two horizontal slots, are exceptionally rare. The superb quality of the porcelain and the vivid underglaze blue pigment indicate that this meiping is a product of the imperial kilns. The bold, forceful, and painterly rendering of the ancient prunus tree is highly unusual and closely akin to the decorative styles found on Kangxi blue and white wares, suggesting a late Kangxi to early Yongzheng attribution.

The dynamic composition features an ancient prunus tree with its bent trunk overhanging a jagged rock from which a blooming peony grows. The reverse is delicately painted with a smaller prunus, bamboo stems, and two butterflies flying overhead, all framed by neat line borders at the base of the neck, inside the ring of handles, and around the foot. This motif imbues the vessel with profound auspicious significance. The prunus heralds spring and resilience, the peony represents wealth and honour, and the bamboo signifies integrity. Furthermore, the two butterflies symbolise marital bliss and longevity. The combination of butterflies hovering amongst blooming flowers was a highly popular motif for weddings, suggesting this magnificent vase may have been presented on a marriage.

Other than the present vase, very few examples of this type are recorded. A similar meiping, formerly in the Jarras Collection, was sold in our London rooms, 9th June 1987, lot 261, and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot 340. A pair of similar vases was also sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 28th November 1990, lot 164.
The rare four-handled form appears to have inspired a subsequent group of Yongzheng meiping characterised by a longer neck and three small loop-handles around the shoulder. Compare a robin's egg-glazed example of this three-handled type in the Nanjing Museum, included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 38; and a celadon-glazed example sold in these rooms, 7th May 2002, lot 510.

Sotheby's. Zoomorphia: Animal Forms in Ancient China | Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 5 May 2026