A VERY RARE IMPERIAL WUCAI 'BOYS' JAR
Wanli six-character mark and of the period
The vessel boldly painted in bright enamels with a continuous scene of eight boys at play engaging in various leisurely pursuits, including riding a wooden horse, holding a lotus leaf as a canopy, flying a flag, holding a vase, and playing with crickets, all in a garden setting interspersed with trialling clouds, pitted rocks, trees and a band of downward over-lapping plantain leaves on the sloping shoulder. 13.5cm (5 2/8in) high.
Footnotes:
明萬曆 五彩嬰戲圖罐
青花「大明萬曆年製」楷書款

Provenance: Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, by 1976
A Japanese private collection
S. Marchant & Son, London, by March 2002, sold on 2 September 2005 (invoice and label)
John E. Bodie OBE (1930-2023), London, collection no.6

Published and Illustrated: Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Tokyo, 1976, vol.I, p.313, pl.934
S. Marchant & Son, Recent Acquisitions 2002, London, 2002, pp.14-15, no.6 (and illustrated on the Front Cover)

來源： 東京古董商繭山龍泉堂，1976年
日本私人收藏
倫敦古董商S. Marchant & Son，2002年3月，出售於2005年9月2日（收據和標籤）
大英帝國官佐勳章獲勳人John E. Bodie(1930-2023)，倫敦，藏品編號6

著錄：繭山龍泉堂，《繭山龍泉堂七十年》，第一冊，第313頁，圖版934
S. Marchant & Son，《Recent Acquisitions 2002》，倫敦，2002年，第14-15頁，編號6（封面）

This rare jar, featuring playful boys, is based on a prototype dating to the Jiajing period. See, for example, a wucai 'boys' jar and cover, Jiajing mark and period, decorated with a nearly identical scene, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2017, lot 8005. 'Boys' jars drew inspiration from earlier Ming Dynasty blue and white wares decorated with similar designs. See, for example, a blue and white jar, Xuande mark and of the period, decorated with sixteen boys at play, illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, Cat.no.152.

During the Ming dynasty, the portrayal of children at play emerged as a visually captivating and auspicious theme in Chinese art. Originally rooted in Buddhist beliefs and later influenced by Daoism, this subject acquired a secular interpretation by the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907), symbolising the auspicious desire for offspring, known as zhaozhi. It also alludes to the 'hundred boys' decoration, representing the sons of Zhou Wenwang, the founder of the Zhou dynasty, who, as legend has it, had ninety-nine sons from his twenty-four wives and adopted an orphaned boy to complete the count to one hundred. Boys at play thus embody the blessing for an abundance of male descendants, ensuring the perpetuation of the family line and the fulfilment of filial duties. This wish would have been particularly poignant for the continuity of the Ming dynasty.

In one depiction, a boy is shown holding a lotus stem, potentially serving as a rebus or visual pun. In Chinese, the word for lotus lian sounds similar to a term meaning 'continuous' or 'successive', suggesting the wish for the continuous birth of sons and grandsons when combined with the image of a boy. Additionally, another Chinese word for lotus pronounced as 'he' resembles the term for 'harmony', implying harmony among future generations of sons and grandsons.

Some minor rubbing and loss to the enamels; a few minor firing imperfections, approx. 1cm vertical hairline crack at the neck; firing spots and area of glaze discolouration to the interior; general surface wear.