A very fine pair of eggshell porcelain bowls, decorated with opaque enamels from the famille rose palette. The bowls have wide flaring rims, with a scalloped edge and stand on a high foot ring. The exterior is decorated with a dense pattern of scrolling green foliage with pink peonies, a few yellow flowers and the occasional small blue leaves. The two large reserve leaf-shaped panels, are outlined in black. They each depict a pond with a golden mandarin duck - one a male and the other a female - surrounded by trailing peony branches. The inside rim has a wide border with a pink diaper pattern outlined with a turquoise band, interspersed with three blue floral ornaments and three leafshaped reserves with flowers. The bottom of the bowls have a large pink peony flower. The undersides are undecorated and each have two labels, one for the W. Martin-Hurst Collection (nr. 438 & 439) and a dealer label Dinastia, Lisbon.
Often depicted in pairs, Mandarin ducks (yuanyang 鸳鸯) are a popular motif in Chinese art. It is believed that they mate for life and will perish if separated. For this reason they are popular symbols of marital devotion and fidelity. Peony flowers (mudanhua) are emblems of wealth, honour and feminine beauty. When Mandarin ducks are depicted together with peonies they denote the wish for a prosperous and happy marriage.
William Martin-Hurst (1876-1941), was a renowned collector and connoisseur of famille rose eggshell porcelain. He famously collaborated with George Williamson’s seminal work The Book of Famille Rose, in which many of the illustrated pieces came from Martin-Hurst’s own collection. His impressive collection is well known for its exceptional quality, objects mostly dating from the Yongzheng and early Qianlong periods. After his death it was auctioned in London in 1942, 1943 and in 1981.
