Lot 1732. A green and yellow-glazed 'Boys' bowl, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double-circle and of the period (1723-1735); 5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. Price realised USD 40,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011. 

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

Provenance: Christie's, London, 12 March 1986, lot 96.

Note: Yongzheng bowls with this type of decoration are seen with two different bands around the rim. Some have stylized floral borders with demi-florettes, as seen on the present lot, while others have quatrefoil panels.

Yongzheng bowls of this design 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, pl. 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 in our Hong Kong rooms, 1 December 2010, lot 3200.

Similar bowls with the other border at the mouth rim are also published including one 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.