A FINE MASSIVE FAMILLE ROSE 'MANDARIN DUCKS AND PEONY' CIRCULAR CHARGER Yongzheng/early Qianlong period, circa 1740 Brightly and delicately enameled at the center with a pair of mandarin ducks perched among pierced Lake Tai garden rocks issuing large vibrantly colored flowering tree peony, within a wide floral and blue enamel border densely filled with large peony blossoms, sprays of blooming branches and butterflies divided at the four compass points by pale blue ground scrolls. 21 1/2in (52cm) diam Footnotes: 雍正/乾隆時期 約1740年 粉彩《鴛鴦牡丹》大盤 Published Cohen & Cohen, Take Two!, Antwerp, 2017, pp. 66-69, no. 28 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Take Two!》，安特衛普，2017年，頁66-69，圖版編號28 Mandarin ducks have been a popular symbol in Chinese art for centuries. Mandarin ducks were believed to mate for life, and so pairs of them have been a long-standing symbol for the strong bond between lovers, or a man and wife. A 'mandarin duck dream' is a Chinese metaphor for a romantic dream, and indeed this romantic connotation explains its use as the very allusive name of Ye Xiaowan's (1630-60) famous Ming drama, 'The Dream of Mandarin Ducks' (Yuanyang meng). Westerners brought back these 'exotic' birds to Britain in the first half of the eighteenth century and the first drawing of this strange newcomer was made in 1745 (around the same time as the production of this dish) by George Edwards in the gardens of Sir Matthew Decker in Richmond Green, Surry. (fig. 1) This fine large dish may very probably have been enameled in the same workshop as lot 95.