After a visit to the Treasury at Winchester College, Ben Aubury and I decided to make videos and write blog posts on the three depictions of ducks in the Duberly Collection of Chinese Art. You can also read about the ducks in this booklet: issuu.com/godtres/docs/ducks. This is my blog post about a duck saucer dish.
Winchester College possesses the saucer dish below. Watch this short video to learn about the object. Beneath the video I give a description of the object, including its symbolism, a prominent art historian's theory about the object, and a summary of the symbolism of ducks in China.
This saucer dish’s base has a Jiajing six-character mark within a double circle, which indicates that it was made between 1522 and 1566. The dish comes from Jingdezhen, in the Jiangxi Province. It was given to the College as part of the Duberly Collection in 1978 and was purchased by the Duberlys for £5 in 1959. There are a large number of symbolic depictions on the saucer.
The dish is obviously made from porcelain, with an underglaze blue decoration. The dish is almost flat — it has a domed base and a narrow foot rim. In the centre there are two ducks swimming and two more ducks flying above. There is also a clump of bulrushes and other aquatic plants. The underside has sprigs of two peonies, a pomegranate and a peach. Its diameter is 14 centimetres.
Major Duberly wrote:
the ducks denote married fidelity, the pomegranate fertility, the peach longevity and the peony riches and honour
Margaret Medley, a friend of the Duberlys and a prominent art historian, an authority in the world of Chinese ceramics, thought that the dish was Transitional, from the mid-17th century, as the mark on its base was upside-down. Major Duberly noted this.
Generally in China, the duck is a symbol of felicity, often paired with the lotus. Mandarin ducks are said to become feeble, even die, when separated from their spouse. This resonates with the idea of matrimonial fidelity. In addition to this, ducks survive the dangers of the river, so are often viewed as the talisman of safety.
Winchester College – Collections: http://winchestercollections.co.uk/collection/saucer-dish-2
'The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College': https://treasury.winchestercollege.org/new-design/pages/forms/duberly-collection-of-chinese-art
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