Lot 101. A large blue and white ‘Mandarin Ducks’ charger, Yuan dynasty (1279-1368); 46cm., 18 1/8 in. Estimate 50,000 - 70,000 GBP. Lot sold 74,500 GBP. © Sotheby's 2013

the rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to a wide everted rim, painted in rich tones of cobalt-blue, the interior with a slightly recessed medallion enclosing a pair of mandarin ducks swimming in a lotus pond, encircled at the cavetto by an undulating lotus scroll, the rim with a trellis border, similarly decorated to the exterior with a leafy lotus scroll.

Provenance: A Japanese Private Collection

Note: A number of impressive large chargers of this type are preserved, but they all vary considerably in their execution and decoration. The present piece is a particularly fine example amongst wares belonging to this group, with the cobalt of vivid deep blue tone and the painting of the swimming ducks amongst water plants expertly executed. While no two Yuan chargers of this type are exactly the same, this example is closely related to one in the Topkapi Museum, Istanbul, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, Cat. II, London, 1986, pl. 569, where on p. 495 another similar charger discovered at the site of a Tughlaq Palace in Delhi is mentioned. See another impressive charger of this type, from the Ardebil Shrine and now in the Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran, included in John Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, 1956, pl. 7, with a different  design band around the rim and the back painted with lotus panels instead of a continuous lotus scroll motif as seen on this piece; and another with a bracket lobed rim, in the Palace Museum, Beijing,  published in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 11, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 161.

A charger of this form and design with an everted rim was sold in these rooms, 6th April 1976, lot 107; and one, painted with a lotus pond scene with stems of flowers, foliage and pods rising from the water, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd may 2005, lot 638.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London, 15 mai 2013,