A large blue and white 'hundred boys' jar mark and period of Jiajing

of sturdily potted shouldered form with gently rounded sides tapering towards the wide base surmounted by a straight neck painted in pale underglaze-blue with a continuous scene of 'boys at play', in a terraced garden under pine trees, with swirling clouds above, a band of overlapping upright lotus lappets at the foot, the shoulder with four cartouches containing fruiting and flowering sprigs on a diaper ground, the recessed base with a six-character mark in underglaze-blue  

A similar Jiajing jar with cover, in the British Museum, London, is illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 238, pl. 9:50, where it is mentioned that the illustrations of  'One Hundred Children' represent a desire for fertility, wealth and happiness and although the children depicted on the jar appear to be playing freely, many of them are engaged in games for success in a future official life.

Several large imperial jars of this form are known, see one in the Capital Museum, Beijing, excavated in 1980 in Beijing at Chaoyang district and illustrated in Shoudu  Bowuguan zangci xuan, Beijing, 1991, pl. 121; and another, originally from the J.M. Hu collection and sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1985, lot  16, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Part I, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 35, with the companion jar also sold in our New York rooms, 29th November 1993, lot 238.

Compare also a jar in the Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo, included in the exhibition In Pursuit of the Dragon, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1988, cat.no. 48; and one in the Indianapolis Museum of Art published in Beauty and Tranquility: The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis, 1983, pl. 101.