Chinese Yuan Dynasty Period, blue & white duck pond motif porcelain plate. The porcelain potted in shallow vessel form, thick and large, with broad wide central interior, rounded cavetto gently tapering to open wide, with a wavy water form open rim, raised with round shallow draft, slight concave base. All reserved in hand painting ornamentations, rendered in clean white under glazed ground color which contrast against the cobalt blue fine color. The center interior medallion adorned with two duck relaxing on the pond among water plants and abundant flowers blooms. Abundant big lotus flowers blooms with scrolling foliage festooned on the middle section, And thrashing wavy Lishui water on the outer mouth rim. Each section banded and enclosed with double fine rings. The Mandarin duck is so named because of its self importance and flamboyant plumage like the high officials yuan mandarins of the Imperial court. It symbolizes loyalty as the ducks mate for life and it is said that when one dies its mate will pine away and also die. Often the mandarin drake is shown with a lotus flower in its beak and its mate with a lotus fruit with the meaning of a wish for children. They are a popular motif on wedding gifts. A mandarin duck and a butterfly together signifies unrequited young love. A duck amongst reeds yi jia lian the wish for good luck in examinations, a reed is a homophone for passing exams. The foot rim reveals the cut edges during the making process, and the base left unglazed with grayish creme-brown ground and dark spots of firing marks. The underside unglazed, revealed the pale-creme groundand dark grayish brown spotted firing marks and edge-cut foot rim. The clay is very fine, with a brilliant glaze finish that was applied by a meticulous, the shape is uniformly proportioned. Dimensions: 18.5"L x 2.875"H