Lot Essay
See J. Rawson, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon, op. cit., fig.152 for a smaller 'twin-duck' dish which is also illustrated by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no.135; the larger examples, illustrated by J. Alexander Pope, op.cit., pl.7, no.29.38.; and by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol.II, no.637, p.19. "Twinned" designs of this kind demonstrated both the continuation onto the earliest blue and white of twinned animals and birds, survivors of Tang and Liao silver and gold designs; and also the extent to which early painters at Jingdezhen looked to establish symmetrical and elaborate designs, before coming to terms with the freedom offered by the white surface of the vessel