Although 'Ding' bowls with this charming decoration of a pair of ducks in a lotus pond that is rich in symbolism with the ducks representing connubial bliss and loyalty and the pond itself a rebus for harmony and purity are known, the present example is especially fine in its potting and decoration. The well defined deep carving of the design is noteworthy, insinuating that the vessel was made for a special occasion, possibly as a wedding gift. 'Ding' wares are generally thinly potted, as seen on the present vessel, with a fine body which does not require a slip to appear white after firing. It is covered in an ivory-coloured glaze which runs down in somewhat darker 'tears' characteristic of the best 'Ding' examples.

A slightly smaller bowl of more rounded form with the duck design, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the museum's Special Exhibition of Ting Ware White Porcelain, Taipei, 1987, cat. no. 44; another from the collection of Lucy Maud Buckingham was exhibited in Masterpieces of Chinese Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1989, cat. no. 67; and a third, probably also of this type from the Ginsberg collection, was exhibited in the Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 595. Compare also a bowl sold in these rooms, 10th June 1997, lot 14.