Page 142 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

686

AN EXTREMELY RARE WUCAI ‘BOYS’ BOX AND It is extremely rare to find covered boxes in barrel form
COVER among Ming dynasty porcelains. The usage of these drum-
WANLI MARK AND PERIOD shaped boxes is still not fully understood. The two most
frequently cited explanations for the form are as containers
of barrel form, the rounded sides boldly and freely painted for weiqi stones or as cricket cages. The rounded sides and
in green, yellow, iron red, black and underglaze blue with fitted domed covers would work well for both purposes. The
a continuous scene of sixteen boys at play, the chubby height of the present example suggests it would be better
children happily engaging in various activities such as flying suited for crickets as the depth of the form would make
a kite, galloping astride a hobby horse with an ‘attendant’, scooping out playing pieces somewhat difficult.
holding a parasol, marching in a procession, blowing on a Cricket fighting is a traditional game with a long history in
suona, and flag waving, all in a garden lush with flowering China. Enthusiasm for this activity reached new heights in
plants, small shrubs, fan-shaped banana palms, a craggy
pine issuing clusters of bright green needles, and a weeping the Ming dynasty, with an observer noting that on the death
of one enthusiast’s prized cricket, ‘he made a silver coffin’
willow tree suspending long leafy branches, a classic scroll for the insect in the form of a Buddhist reliquary. Porcelain
border encircling the rim, the fitted slightly domed cover cricket cages in barrel form, but with recessed covers,
similarly decorated, the unglazed base of the box with a
recessed glazed medallion enclosing an underglaze blue six- were first made for the Xuande Emperor (r. 1426-35), as
discussed in Liu Xinyuan, Ming Xuande guanyao xishuai guan
character mark within a double circle (2) [Xuande period cricket jars from the Ming imperial kilns],
Height 7⅛ in., 18 cm
Taipei, 1995. Cricket fights were popular during the Wanli
PROVENANCE period, especially in Beijing and southern China. A variety of
imperial porcelain cricket cages from the Wanli period are
Collection of Dolores Alzaga.
illustrated in line drawings in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi
jiandin [Appraisal of Ming and Qing Porcelains], Hong Kong,
$ 60,000-80,000
1993, fig. 264.
明萬曆 五彩嬰戲圖蓋罐 While no other boxes of identical size and decoration to the
present example appear to be known, related examples of
《大明萬曆年製》款 this form include one in the Shanghai Museum of slightly
smaller size, decorated with dragon motifs illustrated in
來源 Chugoku Toji Zenshu, vol. 21, Kyoto, 1981, pl. 41; another of
Dolores Alzaga 收藏 this type, but without its cover, in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, is illustrated in Suzanne Valenstein, The
Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1992,
cat. no.85. For an underglaze blue example of this type,
see one from the C.P. Lin Collection illustrated in Elegant
Form and Harmonious Decoration. Four Dynasties of
Jingdezhen Porcelain, London, 1992, cat. no. 90. A wucai
box and cover with figural decoration, formerly in the
Jingguantang Collection of T.T. Tsui, is illustrated in Regina
Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol.
4, London, 1994, no. 1704, and sold at Christie’s London,
15th November 2000, lot 32, and twice in in our Hong Kong
rooms, 13th November 1990, lot 149, and 7th April 2011,
lot 70. Compare also a box and cover with ‘mythical beast’
decoration that sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th October
2016, lot 110.

END OF SESSION ONE

140 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART