Finely potted with a thin, eggshell body and delicately painted in a soft, silvery tone of underglaze cobalt blue, the vessel is decorated with a pair of ducks amidst flowering plants and rockwork. The base is supported on a distinctive triple-line foot, possibly alluding to one of the Eight Trigrams (bagua), specifically Li, traditionally associated with fire, brightness, elegance and the South.

The unusual form is inspired by archaic bronze ritual pouring vessels known as yi, first developed during the Zhou dynasty, and represents a rare ceramic interpretation of these ancient prototypes. Vessels of this type may also be described as libation cups.

The present example appears to be exceptionally rare and may have formed part of a small, possibly specially commissioned group, potentially conceived in relation to the symbolic system of the Eight Trigrams.

此器胎體輕薄，近乎「蛋殼瓷」，以柔和的銀灰色青花細繪雙鴨花石圖，一對水鴨棲游於盛開花卉與山石之間。器底承以獨特的三線式足，或暗合八卦之一的「離卦」，寓意光明與文采。

此器造型取意於周代青銅禮器「匜」，是對早期青銅器形較為罕見的瓷質化演繹，亦可稱作祼獻杯或酒禮器。

本器極為罕見，或出自一組數量極少的特別訂製器，其造型可能與八卦象徵體系有關。

Reference:

• A related example, described as a peach-shaped wine cup decorated with a bird on a branch, is in the Butler Collection, included in the 2008 exhibition 'Chinese Porcelains from the Butler Collections' at the Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg, and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, p. 97, no. 61, where it is mentioned that the shape has not previously been published and no other such piece is known. Also illustrated in Katharine Butler and Teresa Canepa, 'Leaping the Dragon Gate: The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-century Chinese Porcelain', p. 161, no. III.1.314.

• A related example is illustrated in the 1982 exhibition catalogue 'Shadow of the Dragon, Chinese Domestic and Trade Ceramics' by the Columbus Museum of Art, USA, pp. 80-81, no. 183. It is described as 'A leaf-shaped dish with three knob-like feet is glazed inside and out except for the bottom of the feet. On the outside are two groups of long-leafed plants with birds; inside is a scene of a deer on a rock with the "three friends of winter," pine, bamboo, and prunus.'