Coco Li
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THE J.M. HU AND T.T. TSUI 'BOYS' JAR AND COVER
Lot 19
A MAGNIFICENT AND IMPORTANT BLUE AND WHITE 'BOYS' JAR AND COVER Jiajing six-character mark and of the period
Amended
15 September 2025, 09:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$1,754,500 inc. premium
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A MAGNIFICENT AND IMPORTANT BLUE AND WHITE 'BOYS' JAR AND COVER
Jiajing six-character mark and of the period
Painted in extremely vibrant, dark, violet tones of underglaze cobalt blue with a wide central register to the baluster body, depicting a continuous terraced garden scene with sixteen boys at play amidst plantain, palm and pine, under gentle billowy clouds with distant peaks, set between a band of lotus petal lappets at the foot and a wan-cell band with four alternate fruit and flower ogival cartouches dividing four auspicious emblems, an ingot, a coin or cash symbol, paired rhino horns and a coral branch, to the high, rounded shoulder, all below a slightly tapering and waisted plain neck with two encircling lines at the rounded rim, the rare domed cover surmounted by a bud-shaped finial with cash symbols and scroll work to the tip above upright lotus petals that rise from encircling lines and a band of classic scroll, the finial rising from eight radiating lotus petals to the domed cover above alternate peach and lingzhi sprays divided by cloud motifs on the upright sides, the cover interior with an orange-fired biscuit rim and white-glazed interior, the base with a wide unglazed rounded foot ring and a glazed center that is concave at the edges and convex at the six-character mark at the center.
Jar and cover: 18 1/2in (47cm) overall high
Jar only: 13 3/8in (34cm) high and 15 1/2in (39.3cm) diam, across the body
Jar mouth: 9 3/8in (24cm), diam
Foot: 10 1/4in (26cm) diam
Cover: 10 3/4in (27.4cm) diam
(fitted box).
Painted in extremely vibrant, dark, violet tones of underglaze cobalt blue with a wide central register to the baluster body, depicting a continuous terraced garden scene with sixteen boys at play amidst plantain, palm and pine, under gentle billowy clouds with distant peaks, set between a band of lotus petal lappets at the foot and a wan-cell band with four alternate fruit and flower ogival cartouches dividing four auspicious emblems, an ingot, a coin or cash symbol, paired rhino horns and a coral branch, to the high, rounded shoulder, all below a slightly tapering and waisted plain neck with two encircling lines at the rounded rim, the rare domed cover surmounted by a bud-shaped finial with cash symbols and scroll work to the tip above upright lotus petals that rise from encircling lines and a band of classic scroll, the finial rising from eight radiating lotus petals to the domed cover above alternate peach and lingzhi sprays divided by cloud motifs on the upright sides, the cover interior with an orange-fired biscuit rim and white-glazed interior, the base with a wide unglazed rounded foot ring and a glazed center that is concave at the edges and convex at the six-character mark at the center.
Jar and cover: 18 1/2in (47cm) overall high
Jar only: 13 3/8in (34cm) high and 15 1/2in (39.3cm) diam, across the body
Jar mouth: 9 3/8in (24cm), diam
Foot: 10 1/4in (26cm) diam
Cover: 10 3/4in (27.4cm) diam
(fitted box).
Footnotes
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明嘉靖 《大明嘉靖年製》楷書雙行款 青花嬰戲圖蓋罐
Provenance:
J. M. Hu (1911-1995) Collection
The J. M. Hu Family Collection, Sotheby's New York, 29-30 November 1993, lot 238
T. T. Tsui (1941-2010) Collection
The Jingguantang Collection, Christie's Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 888
Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1738
Published:
Christie's 20 Years in Hong Kong: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Highlights, Hong Kong, 2006, p.97
來源：
胡惠春 (1911-1995) 舊藏
《胡惠春家族珍藏》，紐約蘇富比，1993 年 11 月 29-30 日，拍品編號 238
徐展堂 (1941-2010) 舊藏
《靜觀堂珍藏》，香港佳士得，1997 年 11 月 5 日，拍品編號 888
香港佳士得，2007 年 11 月 27 日，拍品編號 1738
出版：
《香港佳士得二十週年回顧：中國瓷器及工藝品精選》，香港，2006 年，頁97
The present jar and cover are one of a pair from J.M. Hu Family Collection, originally sold at Sotheby's New York, 30 September 1993, lot 238 and entered the Jingguantang collection. It was sold twice again at Christie's Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 888 and in the same rooms, 27 November 2007, lot 1738. The other paired jar and cover was sold at Sotheby's New York, 4 June 1985, lot 16, and is now in the collection of the Tianminlou Foundation, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 35.
Large imperial jars of this design complete with their covers are exceedingly rare. A very similar 'boys' jar and cover from the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli in the Ming Dynasty: A Comparison of Porcelains from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum, vol. I, Beijing, 2018, p. 58, pl. 13. Another example, now in the British Museum (coll. no. 1973,0417.1.a-b) and formerly in the Russell Collection, was sold at Sotheby's London, Ming Dynasty Blue and White from the Charles Russell Collection, 6 June 1935, lot 97, (purchased for £225 by Bluett's on behalf of Alfred Clark), and is illustrated in Roy Davids and Dominic Jellinek, Provenance; Collectors, Dealers and Scholars: Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America, privately printed, 2011, p. 144, pl. 33. It was displayed in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Art, 1935-36, London, no. 1910, loaned from the Clark Collection and subsequently donated to the British Museum by Mrs. Alfred (Ivy) Clark in 1973. It is also illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Dynasty Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 237-238, fig. 9:50. Compare two other examples with covers, one presently in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 142; and the other, now in the Capital Museum, Beijing, was excavated in 1980 at the Chaoyang District, Beijing and illustrated in Shoudu Bowuguan Cangci Xuan (Selected Ceramics from the Capital Museum), Beijing, 1991, pl. 121.
Several 'boy' jars without covers are published, see the example from the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in the essay by Huang Weiwen, figs. 1-1 to 1-4, on pp. 41 and 47 in this catalog. Another in the exhibition catalogue Enlightening Elegance, Imperial Porcelain of the Mid to Late Ming, the Huaihaitang Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 228-231; an example in the Museum of Decorative Arts, Copenhagen is illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, La Porcelaine Ming, Fribourg, 1978. P. 134, no. 124; another in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts was included in the exhibition catalogue, 'In Pursuit of the Dragon', Seattle Art Museum, 1988, no. 48; and a fifth in the Fengchengxian Museum, Jiangxi province is illustrated by Geng Baochang in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua da cidian, Shanghai and Hong Kong, 1995, no. 766, p. 393. An example with a cut-down neck from the S.D. Winkworth Collection is illustrated by R.L. Hobson and A.L. Hetherington, The Art of the Chinese Potter, New York, 1923, pl. CXLVIII.
The sixteen children, so lyrically painted on our jar, are occupied in a range of different activities and games, that belie a deeper meaning. One rides a hobby horse, while a companion holds a lotus-leaf parasol over his head, both looking back to a boy who pulls a toy cart in the form of a entrance gateway or small building (fig. 1), all this before another scene with a child, of larger proportions, in the guise of a scholar seated in a throne-like chair before a table screen, with a table in front at which sits a boy reading and another crawling nearby towards an open book and sporting a black gauze hat with wings, typical of a bureaucrat, before him stands a boy leaning on a stick, possibly sugar cane or bamboo, behind another boy gesticulates with his right arm whilst holding a fruit or ball in his raised left hand (see p. 53 in this catalog), beyond this another scene depicts a boy seated in a four-wheeled cart that is pulled by a taught string over the shoulder of a boy strenuously leaning forward in front and with another boy behind holding a pole, topped by a large fan, over his head, trailing them a boy raises a branch of coral (fig. 3), the next scene depicts three boys seated or standing at low table on which sits a vessel, presumably containing crickets, that one of the boys prods with an arrow, beyond them a boy holds up another arrow taken from a quiver at his side, perhaps to hand to the other boys engaged watching the game with crickets (fig. 4).
The children on our jar are shown with shaved heads and with three small tufts of hair, one on the forehead and one either side of the cranium. This hairstyle may have been adopted for practical reasons, to deter lice, for instance, but it enjoyed long-lived popularity. The costumes for the boys consisted of loose trousers over which are layered long-sleeved knee-length robes sometimes with a belt at the waist leaving a V-necked opening. Jewelry for children consisted of earrings and bangles. Shoes were made of textile, cotton or silk with dark uppers and pale soles.
Jessica Harrison Hall, op. cit., pp. 237-238, notes that in Confucian philosophy, many children, but particularly many sons, were essential for the fulfilment of filial and ancestral duties, rites and ceremonies, and images of boys (and girls) on Ming dynasty porcelains are closely related to contemporary Ming paintings and the decorative arts. In these images, although the children appear to be playing freely, many of them are engaged in games with symbolic meaning, emblems for success in a future official life.
Boys at play in a garden was a theme much favored and popularized at the painting schools of the Southern Song court, largely led by the works of Su Hanchen (1094-1172). His seminal baizi paintings (hundred-boys) are usually depicted in gardens and can be seen engaging in various leisurely activities, from dancing to kite-flying. The education of sons was a preoccupation of paramount importance.
The subject seemed to fall out of favor for a few hundred years but made a re-appearance at Jingdezhen in the Ming dynasty. It was of particular interest to the Jiajing Emperor who is recorded in the Ming shi (《明史》, 'History of the Ming') to have commissioned a Daoist rite to take place in the Imperial gardens in the eleventh year of his monarchy (1532) for the express purpose of praying for the birth of imperial sons. The theme of 'children at play' became symbolic of progeny and fulfillment of the Confucian ideal in the education and advancement of sons, and represent a desire for fertility, wealth and happiness. On this jar, these sentiments are further amplified by the four auspicious emblems of wealth and luxury: an ingot, a coin or cash symbol, paired rhino horns and a coral branch, that are painted on the high shoulder.
Saleroom notices
Please note, lot 19 will not be available for online bidding. You may bid via telephone, absentee, or in-person.
If you are interested in bidding on Lot 19, please contact Coco Li (Coco.Li@bonhams.com) or Katniss Xu (Katniss.Xu@bonhams.com), as a deposit may be required.
請注意，拍品19號不支持線上競標。您可以選擇電話委託、書面委託或親自到現場競標。
如果您有意競標此拍品，請聯絡 Coco Li（Coco.Li@bonhams.com） 或 Katniss Xu（Katniss.Xu@bonhams.com），該拍品或需繳納保證金。
