A BLUE AND WHITE 'MANDARIN DUCKS' BOWL YUAN DYNASTY

the rounded sides rising from a slightly spreading foot, the interior painted with two mandarin ducks in a lotus pond above a tortoise within a circular panel, below a wide band of classic scroll at the rim, the exterior painted with a band of scrolling lotus above a wide band of lappets at the foot

This rare bowl is in good condition with the exception of minute rim frits, a 4mm., shallow glaze flake to the side of the footring and minor glaze firing imperfections including burst glaze bubbles and light glaze scratches.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This charming bowl is remarkable for its painterly design of mandarin ducks swimming in a lotus pond, but is particularly noteworthy on account of a playful detail extremely rarely found on pieces of this design: Besides the ducks, the lotus pond here also houses another water creature, a turtle, symbol of longevity and one of the Four Divine Creatures of the Chinese constellation. The turtle was considered so auspicious in China that the character designating it, gui, was often chosen for personal names. In the Tang dynasty (618-907), for example, it appears in the name of the great poet Lu Guimeng ( ? -881), and that of the outstanding musician favoured by the Emperor, Li Guinian (Guinian meaning ‘live as long as the turtle’).

This bowl is also unusual for its small size and conical form, and bowls of this design are more commonly modelled with a lipped rim; see for example a larger bowl in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, included in the exhibition Splendors in Smalt. Art of Yuan Blue-and-White Porcelain, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2012, cat. no. 22, together with one excavated in Wuwei, Gansu province, and now in the Wuwei Museum, cat. no. 45. Compare also a stembowl, similarly shaped with straight sides and the interior painted with mandarin ducks, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 20^th May 1981, lot 684.

Compare also a bowl recovered from the site of the Kotla Firuzshah palace in Delhi, which was destroyed in AD 1398, illustrated in Ellen Smart, ‘Fourteenth Century Chinese Porcelain from a Tughlaq Palace in Delhi’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 51, 1975-7, pl. 86c; and another unearthed at Puerto Galera, Philippines, published in J.M. Addis, Early Blue and White Excavated in the Philippines, Manila, 1968, pl. 24.