Lot 1288. An extremely rare large blue and white barbed-rim ‘Mandarin Ducks’ charger, Yuan dynasty (1279–1368); 16 7/8 in. (42.8 cm.) wide. Estimate $100,000 – $150,000. Lot sold USD 111,750. © Christie's Image Ltd 2013

The charger is finely painted in soft tones of underglaze blue to depict a pair of mandarin ducks swimming amidst flowering lotus plants within double-line borders. The cavetto is delicately molded and decorated in reverse reserving the raised decoration against a cobalt blue ground with a band of scrolling lotus consisting of eight flowers, alternately upright and pendent, borne on meandering leafy stems, below a raised scalloped rim encircled by a border of cresting waves. The exterior is decorated with a band of lotus lappets. The base is unglazed with an edge-cut foot rim, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: Professor John Carswell.
Sotheby's London, 15 December 1981, lot 195.

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION

Literature: J. Carswell, A Fourteenth Century Chinese Porcelain Dish from Damascus, American University of Beirut Centennial Publication 1866-1966, Beirut, 1967, pp. 39-52.
J. Carswell, Blue and White - Chinese Porcelain and Its Impact on the World, Chicago, 1985 p. 69 (unillustrated).
J. Carswell, Blue and White - Chinese Porcelain Around the World, London, 2000, pl. 55.

Notes: The central design of ducks in a lotus pond became popular on porcelains painted in underglaze blue during the latter part of the Yuan dynasty, and this magnificent dish appears to be one of only two known dishes featuring this combination of the duck and lotus pond design with molded reversed decoration and a bracket-lobed rim. The other dish was sold at Christie's London, 15 May 2007, lot 211, and featured molded floral scroll on the rim, rather than cresting waves, as seen on the rim of the current dish.

The design of ducks in a lotus pond was very effective on large dishes, such as the current example, and is found on large dishes both with straight rims, such as the dish sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2012, lot 4045 and, less commonly, with bracket-lobed rims, such as the present dish, the Christie's London example, and a dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 12, no. 10. The design also appears to have been popular at the courts of rulers in Western Asia and South Asia. A slightly smaller example with a round rim from the Ardebil Collection is illustrated by J. A. Pope in Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, reprint London, 1981, pl. 7; another is preserved in the collection of the Topkapi Saray illustrated by J. Ayers and R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, p. 495, fig. 569; while fragments of several vessels bearing similar ducks and lotus decoration were found at the Tughlaq palace in Delhi and illustrated by E.S. Smart in 'Fourteenth Century Chinese porcelain from a Tughlaq Palace in Delhi', T.O.C.S., vol. 41, 1975-77, pls. 75a, 79d, 81d, 85a, 86b and c, 87c, 88a, 89 a, c, e and f, and 90a.

A number of Yuan dynasty blue and white dishes are known which bear a similar design of lotus without the pair of mandarin ducks. However, the combination of lotus and mandarin ducks, seen on the current dish, is especially auspicious. One word for lotus in Chinese, he, is a homophone for the word for harmony, while another word for lotus, lian, is homophonous to a word meaning successive. Thus, combined with a pair of mandarin ducks, which symbolize fidelity, they form an appropriate wedding motif wishing the couple a harmonious marriage blessed by the birth of many illustrious sons.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. 19 - 20 September 2013. New York, Rockefeller Plaza.