Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 26 November 2014
A fine pair of doucai 'Mandarin duck and lotus' bowls, Qianlong six-character seal mark and of the period (1736-1795)
Lot 3307. A fine pair of doucai 'Mandarin duck and lotus' bowls, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795); 4 in. (10.3 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 600,000 - HKD 800,000. Price realised HKD 1,000,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2014.
The bowls are each delicately potted and decorated with two pairs of mandarin ducks swimming amongst lotus and reed sprays, all above a lappet border. The interiors are each decorated with a medallion enclosing a similar scene, all within double line borders, box.
Exhibited: S. Marchant & Son, London, Imperial Porcelain of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, June 9-25 1996, no. 41.
Note: This ducks-in-lotus-pond theme was typical of the decorative style of the Ming dynasty. A bowl with a very similar decoration excavated from the Zhengtong stratum of the Imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen is illustrated by R. Scott, Orientations, April 1992, fig. 12; and for a Xuande prototype of this pattern, cf. Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong, 1989, no. 89.
A very similar pair of bowls decorated with ducks in lotus ponds can be found in Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, November 1973 - February 1974, pl 90; and another pair were sold in the E. T. Chow Collection at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 15 May 1990, lot 288. A single bowl of this pattern was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3023.