Page 221 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942.9-602 (C-453)
Duck on Lotus Leaf

Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722)
Porcelain with famille verte enamels on the biscuit,
34.0 x 22.8 (i33/s x 9)
Widener Collection

TECHNICAL NOTES
This duck is molded from a grayish white paste. The bottom of
the lotus-leaf base is flat and unglazed with a fabric impression;
there is a large hole in the center. The interiors of the leaf and
the duck are hollow. There are several chips around the base of
the lotus leaf.

PROVENANCE
J. Pierpont Morgan [1837-1913], New York, by 1904. (Duveen
Brothers, New York and London); sold 1915 to Peter A. B.
Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheri-
tance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power
of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
A DIAMOND-SHAPED HOLE in the back of the duck
suggests it may originally have been designed as an
incense burner. The beak has been left unglazed and has
a realistic serrated edge. The enamel colors on the duck's
surface are aubergine for the body, two tones of green for
the feathers, dark green and blue in the tail feathers, and
yellow for the webbed feet. Two tones of green (dark and
lime) color the lotus leaf, with brown added around the
naturalistic holes to suggest the slowly rotting surface,
and a raised blue knob at the stem.
A pair of ducks similar to this piece is in the Swedish
Royal Household Collection at the China Pavilion,
Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm.1 Palace records indi-
cate that the pair of ducks was collected by Queen
Hedvig Eleonora [1636-1715].
SL

NOTES
i. Wirgin 1974, pi. 45.

REFERENCES
1904-1911 Morgan: i: 91, no. 557.

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P O R C E L A I N S