Page 95 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

Carvings and images of boys riding hobby horses form part of the Although cloisonné enamel examples of this design are rare, boys
popular ‘Boys at play’ and ‘Hundred boys’ subjects which first emerged on hobby horses can often be seen carved in jade, such as one,
during the Song dynasty. This theme expresses the Confucian ideal 18th century, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.
for the education and advancement of many sons, a wish further no.2015.500.5.14), and also painted on porcelain. See for example, the
emphasised by the lotus motif (lian 蓮) decorating the boy’s clothing, painting of children on a blue and white jar, Jiajing six-character mark
which is a homophone of ‘continuous’ (lian 連) and creates the rebus and of the period, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of
‘May you continuously give birth to sons’. As the boy is riding a hobby- the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II),
horse, this conveys the further wish for it to come quickly as ‘To be on Hong Kong, 2000, no.101.
top of a horse’ (mashang 馬上) also means ‘immediately’.
Sir Harry Garner wrote that ‘human figures are not common in
cloisonné’. Although it was attributed to the late Ming dynasty in the
OCS Exhibition in 1957, it would now be dated to the early Qing
dynasty reign of the Kangxi Emperor. See a related cloisonné enamel
floor lamp decorated with a kneeling figure on its stand, early Qing
dynasty, in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Metal-bodied Enamel
Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, p.95, no.92.

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