The widely flared sides subtly lobed inside and out as six petals, the interior well carved with a duck swimming amidst carved and combed waves repeated in an encircling band below an incised line border, covered overall with a glaze of olive tone, the interior of the ring foot similarly glazed.

Note: Yaozhou dishes of similar form with the duck and wave design are found in a number of major museum collections outside China. Examples of approximately the same size as the present lot are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated by J. Ayers in Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 97; the British Museum, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 5, Tokyo, 1981, no. 77; and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, illustrated by M. Tregear in Song Ceramics, New York, 1982, p. 105, pl. 123. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 22 March 2007