each with deep rounded sides rising from a straight foot to a flared rim, finely incised with eight boys playing various musical instruments within a balustraded garden beneath pine trees, with overlapping lappets at the foot and a border of flower designs at the rim, the design picked out in brilliant apple-green enamel against a yellow ground, six-character marks in underglaze blue within double circles

Hirano Kotoken, Osaka.
Acquired in Japan, 1990.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th October 2011, lot 2126.

Hirano Kotoken honten shinchiku kinen: Chugoku kotoji ten, Osaka, 1990, cat. no. 61.

One bowl with three tiny shallow firing cracks and a 1/2 in. (1 cm) associated shallow chip to the unglazed footring, as well as a small glaze pull to the base. The other bowl with a glaze pull and a dusting of slightly darker spots on the interior. The overall condition of the pair is otherwise good except for some minor surface scratches.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The theme of boys performing and playing musical instruments in a garden on ceramics represents a traditional motif developed over a thousand years and was favored on account of its implied wish for the prosperity of male offspring. According to Terese Tse Bartholomew, 'One Hundred children: From Boys to Play to Icons of Good Fortune', Children in Chinese Art, Honolulu, 2002, the height of the development of this motif for porcelain decor occurred during the Jiajing and Wanli periods when there was an increase of the production of wares with this theme. See one in the Baur collection illustrated in John Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 2, no. A166.

A closely related bowl is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol. 2, pl. 895; one is included in Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 103; and a pair is published in John Ayers, ibid. vol. 4, 1972, 🅰nos. A540 and A541. See also three bowls sold in these rooms, one from the Hall Family Collection, 2nd May 2000, lot 535, another, 9t🧸h October 2007, lot 1610, and the third, 8th October 2008, lot 2511.