China, Southern Song dynasty, 1127 – 1279
Diameter: 7 3/4 inches, 19.6 cm
Height: 2 3/4 inches, 7 cm

A qingbai porcelain bowl of deep conical shape, the thinly potted, steeply curved sides rising from a high foot and terminating in a circular rim. The interior is moulded with a design of two boys playing amid scrolling floral sprays. The details of the flowers are engraved with a small comb. The bowl is covered in a transparent glaze of pale blue hue, leaving only the recessed base unglazed, showing the fine-grained white porcelain body, which is partly burnt red and displays characteristic black firing marks.

The motif of boys playing amid flowers is a popular theme in Chinese iconography and is said to symbolize a wish for many sons. A bowl with similar decoration but lacking the combed details, is in the Avery Brundage Collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.1

1 - Pierson, S. ed. Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Percival David Collection of Chinese Art, London 2002 no. 7, pp. 40-1