The incense burner is formed in two parts, the duck standing with his head raised and turned to his left. His beak, the scrolls round the eyes, the border to the top and bottom, and the legs are all in gilt bronze. His plumage is predominantly dark green speckled in red, translucent purple, blue and yellow, with a white border. The lower part of the body is white, green and pale yellow, and a pierced cash-shaped vent is in the tail.

Duck incense burners go back to the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770-256 BC), one being recovered from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (d. 433). By the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) court ladies used them to fumigate their clothes. The poet Zhu Youdun wrote in 1406: “The incense continues burning in the golden duck censer ’til midnight, as the court ladies keep trying on their new garments of silk and muslin”.

For a similar example see the catalogue accompanying the exhibition A Legacy of Chenghua, the Tsui Museum of Art, 1993, no.C34.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 128

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 28 April 1966 (£800); formerly in the collection of Sir John Jardine, Bt., sold Sotheby’s, London, 2 February 1966, lot 25

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2