Page 38 - Christie's London Fine Chinese Ceramics Nov. 2019

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A RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'BOYS' DISH grandsons. Another Chinese word for lotus is pronounced he, which sounds
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A like the word for harmony, suggesting that there will be harmony among the
DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619) sons and grandsons.
The dish is decorated to the centre with three boys bathing in a large tub and
three further boys playing in a fenced garden beside a pine tree, one fshing
with a large rod, all enclosed by two pairs of confronted fve-clawed dragons in 明萬曆 青花嬰戲圖盤 雙圈六字楷書款
pursuit of the faming pearl to the rim. The exterior is decorated within a border
of six leafy branches, including pomegranate, persimmon and peaches.
7 in.(17.8 cm.) diam. 來源:
倫敦Ben Janssens Oriental Art, 2002年3月20日
£6,000-8,000 US$7,500-10,000
€6,800-9,000 瑞士艾爾伯．梵達倫及莉奧妮．梵達倫伉儷珍藏
PROVENANCE:
With Ben Janssens Oriental Art, London, 20 March 2002.
The depiction of children at play is a visually pleasing, auspicious subject
matter that was popular in Chinese art during the Ming dynasty. The subject
has its roots in Buddhist beliefs, infuenced by Daoism, but by the Tang
dynasty (AD 618-907) had become a secular theme associated with the
auspicious wish for sons and grandsons. One boy is depicted holding a lotus
stem and this may be a rebus or visual pun. The word for lotus in Chinese
is lian which is a homophone for a word meaning continuous or successive,
and when combined with a boy suggests the successive birth of sons and
(mark)

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