DIMENSIONS

Width: 5 ¾ inches

 

PROVENANCE

Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 1998

CATALOGUE NOTES

Blue and white square-shaped bowl, thinly potted and of fine form with outward sloping sides, chamfered corners, and slightly everted foliated lip rim. It rests upon a straight pedestal foot with recessed underfoot. Each broad side of the bowl is decorated along the exterior with a court lady in a garden at a different pursuit: playing a flute, playing with a cat, sewing an embroidered robe, and sitting at a writing table with brush in hand. Each panel is beautifully drawn and the garden setting is filled with rockeries, trees, and flowering plants. The chamfered corners are decorated along the exterior with diaper patterns. The interior of the bowl is decorated in its center with three boys playing with a ball in an outdoor setting near a pavilion partially concealed by clouds. Thin annular bands are drawn around the rim and foot. The decoration is all beautifully drawn in deep and vibrant underglaze cobalt blue against a luminous white ground.

 

The recessed underfoot bears in its center a six-character mark reading Da Qing Kangxi Nien Jih, meaning "Made during the Kangxi reign of the great Qing dynasty" within double rings, all drawn in underglaze cobalt blue.