Asian Ceramics

'For the rich and venerable'

Bowl shaped dish marked 'for the rich and venerable'.

The centre painted with two ducks in a lotus pond, where above stands a rock with a bamboo leaf, and a hanging brache of the pinetree with a bird. Branches of the prunus on the rim.

The two ducks symbolize marital fidelity. The pine, the bamboo and the prunus represent Confucius, Buddha and Lao Tse, 'the three friends of Winter.

China, Jingdezhen.

Second half 16th century.

Diameter: 30.3 cm.