Lot 125. The Leshantang Collection. A fine and rare pair of doucai 'mandarin duck and lotus' dishes, Marks and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 17.5 cm. Lot Sold 2,794,000 HKD (Estimate 3,000,000 - 5,000,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2024

each finely potted with shallow rounded sides rising from a countersunk base enclosed by an unglazed footring, the interior painted with a pair of mandarin ducks swimming in a pond amongst lotus with broad furled leaves and aquatic grasses, the flowers with red-tipped petals issuing from slender stippled stems, the pads naturalistically detailed in two tones of green with insect holes along the edges, the exterior with a matching frieze of four ducks swimming across gently rippled water between sprays of lotus, below a band enclosing six dragons alternating in yellow, green and aubergine in pursuit of flaming pearls at the rim, the base inscribed in underglaze-blue with a six-character reign mark within a double circle.

Provenance: Collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-80), acquired no later than 1959.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19th May 1981, lot 550.

Literature: Edward T. Chow and Frederick Seguier Drake, ‘Kuan-Yao and Min-Yao: A Study on Imperial Porcelain and People's Porcelain from K'ang-hsi to the End of the Ch'ing Dynasty’, Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, vol. 13, 1959, fig. 1 (line drawing) and pl. I, 1 and 2.
Michel Beurdeley and Guy Raindre, La Porcelaine des Qing: Famille verte et famille rose, 1644-1912 / Qing Porcelain. Famille Verte, Famille Rose, Fribourg, 1986; English version, New York, 1987, pl. 134.
Sotheby's Hong Kong Twenty Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 265.
The Leshantang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Taipei, 2005, pl. 45.

Exhibited: Chinese Art from the Ching Wan Society Collections, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 51.

Note: The eminent dealer Edward T. Chow co-wrote an article with Professor Frederick S. Drake in 1959 that delved into the study of imperial Qing porcelain. The article meticulously curated a selection of pieces from the personal collection of Edward T. Chow, and among them is the present pair of dishes, which was prominently featured and chosen as the very first object to be illustrated. These carefully chosen pieces were considered to embody "perfection in every detail" as Professor Drake eloquently states, and as a paragon of the exceptional workmanship and precise symmetrical exactitude that characterises guanyao imperial porcelain.

Over the past sixty years, the present pair of dishes was dutifully kept in the personal collection of Edward T. Chow till its seminal sale in 1981 and later found its place in the Leshantang Collection.

The present pair of dishes is no doubt a superb example of Yongzheng wares which were heavily influenced by early Ming design. Boldly outlined in underglaze-blue and filled-in with a soft colour palette, the design of lotus with mandarin ducks symbolises the wish for a harmonious marriage and the birth of illustrious sons. This auspicious scene was revived again during the Qing dynasty in doucai and blue-and-white colour schemes.

Yongzheng doucai dishes of this design are rare. Museum examples include one in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 216; another dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 25.35.5); and a further pair in the Avery Brundage Collection in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (accession nos B60P1425 and B60P1426).

For examples in prominent private collections, see a dish in the collection of the Tsui Museum of Art, illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV: Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 143; a pair from the T.Y. Chao Collection, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 296, and later at Christie's Hong Kong, 31st October 1994, lot 616 and again on 1st June 2011, lot 3571; another pair formerly in the collection of Mrs. Carsten D. Muller, first sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries, 13th February 1952, lot 192, and again at Christie's New York, 25th September 2020, lot 1830.

Compare also the Yongzheng blue and white version of this design included in this sale (lots 131 and 140).

Sotheby's. The Leshantang Collection (II) – Treasures of Chinese Art from the Tsai I-Ming Collection, Hong Kong, 9 April 2024.