Beschreibung:

A FINE MAGNIFICENT AND IMPORTANT BLUE AND WHITE 'BOYS' JAR AND COVER JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1522-1566) The jar is exquisitely painted in underglaze blue of brilliant deep purplish tone on the high-shouldered body with a continuous scene of sixteen boys at various leisurely pursuits including one who is impersonating the school master, seated on a high-backed chair in front of a baby crawling towards a book; another boy pulling on strings attached to a toy cart on the ground, observed by his friend who is holding a large lotus leaf over the head of his companion riding a hobby-horse, in the further distance three boys are clustered around a square table and peering into a jar, probably containing fighting crickets, whilst another is riding on a cart, being towed by his friend, with two others who are acting as attendants, one holding a large fan and the other offering a potted plant, all within a terraced garden with plantains and pine trees, between overlapping lappets at the base and shaped panels enclosing fruit and floral sprays reserved on a wan -diaper ground on the shoulder. The cover is decorated on the sides with fruiting peach and lingzhi branches, the upper surface with trefoils enclosing radiating panels, below a bud-shaped finial with upright lappets below cash symbols and ruyi -heads. 18 ½ in. (47 cm.) overall height, box Provenance The Collection of J. M. Hu J.M. Hu Family Collection, sold at Sotheby‘s New York, 30 November 1993, lot 238 The Collection of T. T. Tsui The Jingguantang Collection, Important Chinese Ceramics and Jades From The Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 888 Sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1738