Page 19 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

John Sparks Ltd.，倫敦，1965年10月20日

Exhibition
Ming Blue and White Porcelain, The Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1946, cat. no. 62.
The Cosmopolitan Club, New York, 18th September - 22nd October 1979.

展覽
《Ming Blue and White Porcelain》，東方陶瓷學會，倫敦，1946年，編號62
The Cosmopolitan Club，紐約，1979年9月18日至10月22日

Catalogue Note
The imagery of children at play was a favored theme during the Southern Song period, and was popularized by the Southern Song
court artist, Su Hanchen (active early 12th century). Characterized by shaven heads, round faces and wide eyes, this style of
depicting children was carried into the Ming period, as seen on the present jar. The 'Hundred Boys' or 'children at play' theme is
symbolic of the Confucian ideal for the education and advancement of many sons. As a devout Daoist, the subject-matter would
undoubtedly have appealed to the Jiajing Emperor, who is recorded in the Ming Shi (Ming History) to have commissioned a Daoist
rite to take place in the Imperial Garden in the eleventh year of his reign (1532) for the intended purpose of praying for the birth of
imperial sons.

Only a very small number of similar jars are known. One, formerly in the R.H.R. Palmer Collection was sold at Christie's Hong Kong,
30th November 1983, lot 82; another, with a reduced neck, from the J. Hellner Collection is illustrated in L. Reidemeister, Ming-
Porzellane in Schwedischen Sammlungen, Berlin, 1935, pl. 14b, and sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 28th November 1987, lot 75.

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