Lot 1483. An important and extremely rare wucai 'Ducks and Lotus Pond' fish bowl, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue in a line within a double-rectangle and of the period (1573-1619); 18 5/8 in. (47.4 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 250,000 - USD 350,000. Price realised USD 146,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011 

The massive sturdily potted vessel with flared, slightly rounded sides painted in tones of cobalt and highlighted in bold tones of iron-red, green and yellow and brown glaze to depict an aquatic scene with two pairs of mandarin ducks among lotus leaves, blooms and waterweeds below an alternating underglaze blue and iron-red scroll border beneath a band of scrolling vine adorning the flattened rim, the reign mark written in a line below the rim. 

Note: Only three other fishbowls of the Wanli period with this design appear to be extant and all are in museum collections. The most widely published example is a slightly smaller (44.2 cm. diam.) fish bowl from the Idemitsu Collection, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, In Pursuit of the Dragon, Seattle Art Museum, 1988, p. 133, no. 66. Another, larger (58.5 cm. diam.), Wanli-marked example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is illustrated by S. Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 101. A third example (46.5 cm. diam.) is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 2, Tokyo, 1976, p. 317, no. 950.

The prototype for the current 'duck and lotus' pattern can be seen on an iron-red, green and yellow-enameled large bowl attributed to the Jiajing reign bequeathed by Mrs. Walter Sedgewick to the British Museum and illustrated by. J. Harrison-Hall in Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 9:101. A Jiajing doucai dish with the 'ducks and lotus' pattern in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Hong Kong, 1966, pl.18. A similar Jiajing-marked dish with an adaptation of the same pattern, but in wucairather than doucai enamels in the Idemitsu Collection is illustrated in In Pursuit of the Dragon, op. cit., p. 112, no. 49.

Wucai fish bowls of this design can also be found in the preceding Longqing reign and a number of Longqing-marked examples are published, although they are stylistically very different from the Wanli bowls. There are the examples in the collection of the Percival David Foundation illustrated by R. Scott, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art - A Guide to the Collection, London, 1989, p. 86, no. 80; in the Umezawa Collection illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 2, Tokyo, 1976, p. 292, no. 877; in the Hatakeyama Kinenkan Museum, Tokyo, illustrated by R. Fujioka and G. Hasebe in Sekai Toji Zenshu - 14 - Ming, Tokyo, 1976, p. 201, pl. 202; and an example illustrated by Geng Baochang in Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 500, pl. 69. 

The pattern is also found on other forms during the Wanli period. A Wanli-marked wucai garlic-head vase also decorated with ducks in a lotus pond, in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum - 38 - Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 30, no. 27. 

 Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part I & II, 15 September 2011, New York