THE FIRST QIANLONG (1736-95), THE SECOND EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Compare the similarly modelled ducks standing on upturned lotus leaves illustrated by M. Beurdeley and G. Raindre, Qing Porcelain, Famille Verte, Famille Rose, London, 1987, pp. 108 and 109, pl. 156, where the authors comment that in the notes made in 1742 by Tang Ying, supervisor of the imperial kilns, there is reference to pairs of storks for the imperial palace. However, models of birds of this type were more commonly made for the export rather than the domestic market. Records show that models of ducks have appeared in inventories of porcelain in European collections throughout the 18th Century from as early as 1680; examples are given by W. R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection, Salem, 1991, p. 168; Mr. Sargent also illustrates the pair of white-glazed ducks which are in the Peabody Essex Museum on p. 169, which are similar in form to the present lot. A pair of enamelled ducks of this form was sold in these Rooms, 10 July 1961, lot 71 (colour frontispiece), and was illustrated by A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 301, fig. 10. Another very similar pair was exhibited Porcelanas "Compañia de las Indias", Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo, Buenos Aires, 1969, catalogue no. 41, pl. XVI. A further pair from the J. Goldschmidt collection, which were enamelled on the biscuit in a lighter palette, was exhibited Chinesische Kunst, Berlin, 1929, catalogue no. 1055 (dated to the Yongzheng period); and a pair of Qianlong pale celadon-glazed ducks of similar form from the A. Schoenlicht collection as catalogue no. 1056.