JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1522-1566)

Jiajing-period wucai dishes with a ‘duck and lotus’ pattern appear to be very rare. A very similar example from the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue In Pursuit of the Dragon: Traditions and Transitions in Ming Ceramics, 1988, p. 112, no. 49. Jiajing-marked examples with this pattern also exist in the doucai palette, including an example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Enamelled Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II, Hong Kong, 1966, pl. 18. Further examples of this design appear in iron-red, green, and yellow enamels, such as a Jiajing bowl bequeathed by Mrs. Walter Sedgwick to the British Museum and illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall in Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 9:101.

Pairs of ducks are associated with fidelity and harmony. In Designs as Signs: Decoration and Chinese Ceramics, Percival David Foundation, London, 2001, Stacey Pierson explains that pairs of mandarin ducks, yuan yang, symbolize marital fidelity and harmony, as they are believed to mate for life. In combination with lotus, which is homophonous with the word for harmony (he), they may also convey a wish for sons.