Lot 1254. A rare Yixing duck-form water pot, signed Chen Hanwen, 18th century; 5¼ in. (13.3 cm.) long. Estimate $80,000 - USD 120,000. Price realised USD 266,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012

Finely modeled as a recumbent mandarin duck shown as if asleep with head turned backward to rest on the rim of the aperture which is flanked by the graceful upswept wings, the legs tucked under the body to form the supports, the rich brown stoneware with fine buff flecking throughout, with a square seal, Chen Hanwen, stamped in relief beneath the tail, box.

Provenance: Chen Keli (1908 - after 1985), a Yixing collector of the early 20th century, nephew-in-law of Gong Xinzhao (1870-1949), a major collector of Yixing ware in Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s.
Mr. and Mrs. William E. Wiltshire III, Richmond, Virginia; Sotheby's, New York, 5 November 1977, lot 196.
W. Quasha collection, New York.
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London. 

Exhibited: Educated Palates, Nicholas Grindley and Sydney L. Moss Ltd., New York, October 1987, no. 3.

Note: This graceful duck-form water pot reflects a long established Chinese interest in the sculptural portrayal of ducks in ceramics. The popularity of such ceramic forms came to prominence during the Tang dynasty, for example the sancai-glazed vessel in the form of a duck with its head turned backwards in the collection of the Seikado Museum, Tokyo illustrated by M. Sato and G. Hasebe in Sekai Toji Zenshu - 11 - Sui Tang, Tokyo, 1976, no. 197. The interest in sculptural ceramics in duck form continued into the Song dynasty, particularly for water vessels and on lotus censers, such as the qingbai-glazed censer in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago illustrated by S. Pierson in Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, London, 2002, pp. 192-3, no. 106. Duck forms rose in popularity again with the scholars of the 17th century in items for the scholar's table, and remained an admired form through the 18th century. While in the context of marriage mandarin ducks symbolized a loving couple living in harmony, and thus a happy marriage, the ducks in this case are shown in pairs. The single duck, like that seen on the current water pot might have been chosen as a gift from one literatus to another, since the word for duck, ya, provides a rebus or visual pun for another Chinese word meaning elegant or refined.

Beneath the tail of this duck is the seal of the Yixing potter Chen Hanwen (1723-95). In The Stonewares of Yixing from the Ming Period to the Present Day, Hong Kong, 1986, pp. 227 and 264, K.S. Lo notes that Chen Hanwen was a contemporary of Chen Mingyuan, although slightly his junior, and was active during the 18th century. It has even been suggested that Chen Hanwen may have been the younger brother of Chen Mingyuan. Lo illustrates a finely carved fu casket made in archaistic bronze form (ibid., pl. 161), which bears a Chen Hanwen mark and also a hall mark, Shudai Caotang baoyong (Reserved for use in the Shudai Caotang). This studio name is listed in Bie Shu Zhu Qian Ming Tong Qian, p. 169, as having belonged to the scholar/official Zheng Jiang. In the Lidai Mingren Niali Beizhuan Zongbiao, Hong Kong, reprinted 1976, p. 391, the author Jiang Liangfu notes that Zheng Jiang lived from 1682 to 1745. In The Literati Mode, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1986, Paul Moss illustrates a similarly dated lotus leaf-form brush washer bearing the mark of Chen Hanwen, pp. 230-31, no. 105. Moss also discusses two other Chen Hanwen Yixing wares to support this date. One is the archaistic bronze-form casket mentioned above, while the other is a slip-decorated teapot by Chen bearing a Qianlong mark, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. These pieces suggest that Chen was active during the period 1736-1745.
An Yixing box made of lighter clay but also in the form of a duck with closed eyes and head resting on its back is preserved from the Qing court collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing, where it is dated to the Qianlong reign and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Purple Sandy Wares, Beijing, 2008, p. 154, no. 124. (Fig. 1) This box shares a number of stylistic features with the current water pot, but the water pot is more finely carved and more subtly designed than the box. It is possible that the box may have been made by another potter inspired by Chen Hanwen's work.