.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Shendetang is a hall mark associated with a range of fine porcelains made for the Hall for the Cultivation of Virtue, a summer residence of the Emperor Daoguang.
In Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese Ceramics, Percival David Foundation, London, 2001, Stacey Pierson explains that pairs of mandarin ducks, yuan yang, represent marital fidelity or harmony as they are said to mate for life. In association with lotus, homophonous with the word for harmony (he), they can represent a wish for sons.
Compare the single Shende Tang-marked bowl and cover with a similar design of a pair of mandarin ducks in a lotus pond sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5-6 December 1978, lot 1016, and again on 3-4 December 2015, lot 513.
In Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese Ceramics, Percival David Foundation, London, 2001, Stacey Pierson explains that pairs of mandarin ducks, yuan yang, represent marital fidelity or harmony as they are said to mate for life. In association with lotus, homophonous with the word for harmony (he), they can represent a wish for sons.
Compare the single Shende Tang-marked bowl and cover with a similar design of a pair of mandarin ducks in a lotus pond sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5-6 December 1978, lot 1016, and again on 3-4 December 2015, lot 513.