CHINA, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

W.R. Sargent in The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramics Figures, Salem, 1991, p. 169, illustrates a plain white pair of "...these...graceful and elegant ducks" and cites 18th century inventory and sales records for the type, including an enamelled pair in the collection of the French artist François Boucher. A pair of brown ducks of this model sold at Christie's New York, 23 January 2001, lot 62; a pair of famille rose ducks sold in the same rooms on 23 January 2007, lot 127.