A coral-ground famille-verte and gilt-decorated 'boys' bowl, Seal mark and period of Jiaqing

This charming bowl is decorated with lively boys at play within a fenced garden, a motif conveying the auspicious wish for numerous sons. Each figure engages in symbolic pursuits: one boy holds a lotus spray, evoking harmony among descendants (zisun hehe), while another carries a vase (ping), a homophone for peace.

Compare a closely related bowl preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains of Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 159; one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, published in Lu Minghua, Qingdai Yongzheng-Xuantong guanyao ciqi [Qing dynasty official wares from the Yongzheng to the Xuantong reigns], Shanghai, 2014, pl. 3-88; and another in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, exhibited inThe Wonders of the Potter’s Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1984, cat. no. 93; and a further bowl, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong exhibition Ch’ing Polychrome Porcelain, Fung Ping Shan Museum, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 100, was sold at Christie’s London, 13th December 1982, lot 528. For the prototype of this design, see a Kangxi mark and period bowl illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV. Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 104.