CHINA, MING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

The present lot may be compared with the late Ming dynasty cloisonné enamel duck standing on an inverted lotus leaf in the Qing Court Collection illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 43 - Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 79, no. 76. The theme of a duck standing atop an inverted lotus leaf base can be seen in a bronze censer dated to the Ming dynasty, illustrated in the Roger Keverne Winter Exhibition Catalogue, 2006, p. 22, no. 18, where the authors note that the inspiration for the motif as a censer is based on Han dynasty prototypes, such as the one illustrated by J.M. White and R.Y. Otsuka, Pathways to the Afterlife: Early Chinese Art from the Sze Hong Collection, Denver Art Museum, 1993, pp. 78-9, no. 33.

Two related cloisonné enamel ducks are illustrated in Compendium of collections in the Palace Museum: Cloisonné Enamel (I)’, Yuan and Ming cloisonné enamels, Beijing, 2011, figs. 145-146. A pair of duck censers standing on plinths are illustrated in Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, London, 1989, fig. 220, pp. 219-220. Furthermore, there is a pair illustrated in Colourful, Elegant, and Exquisite, A Special Exhibition of Imperial Enamel Ware from Mr Robert Chang's Collection, 2007, Suzhou, p. 118. A Ming dynasty cloisonné enamel duck censer with closely-related inverted lotus leaf base, acquired by Baron Sir John Henry Schröder (1825-1910) and by descent to Baron Bruno Schroder (1933-2019), was sold at Christie's, Paris, 6 July 2022, lot 124 (100,800 Euros). Another example was sold in the same rooms from the Amezaga collection, 7 December 2007, lot 11; and a pair from the Amezaga collection standing on lotus leaves was sold in the same auction, lot 13.