Lot 222. A rare Yixing duck-form vase, zun, early 20th century; 17.4cm., 6 7/8 in. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000. Lot sold 12,500 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's.

well modelled after an archaic bronze prototype in the form of a standing duck supporting a flared zun vase on its back, the chest impressed with a square seal mark reading Chen Mingyuan.

Provenance: Collection of Dr J. Vixseboxse (1916-1986), Dutch sinologist and diplomat.
Acquired in China in the 1940s-70s, and thence by descent. 

Note: The present piece appears to be modelled after a similar Yixing vessel signed Chen Mingyuan in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, included in the exhibition Themes and Variations. The Zisha Pottery of Chen Mingyuan, Shanghai Museum & The Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1997, cat. no. 43.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 13 may 2015