A RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'DESCENDING GEESE' OVOID JAR AND COVERChongzhen Heavily potted of ovoid form, rising from a short foot to a waisted neck, painted around the exterior with a continuous scene of a lotus pond, one goose flying towards another swimming in the water, all beneath a border of pendant foliage, the domed cover with incised scroll-border surrounding a rabbit gazing at the moon amidst rockwork, bamboo and floral sprays. 28.3cm (11 1/8in) high. (2). 明崇禎 青花寳鴨穿蓮紋蓋罐 Provenance: a Leipzig private collection, purchased in 1990, by repute Sotheby's London, 15 May 2007, lot 503 來源：萊比錫私人收藏，於1990年入藏（擬） 蘇富比倫敦，2007年5月15日，拍品503號 Lotus were beloved by the literati since the Neo-Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073) wrote his essay 'On Loving Lotus' ( Ai lian shuo ). In his essay, Zhou likened the scholar-gentleman to the lotus who 'remains pure despite growing from the mud' ('出淤泥而不染'). In the context of venal late Ming Court politics of the Chongzhen era when the present lot was made, the pure lotus that rises from the mud would have resonated strongly with scholar-officials and encapsulated a hopeful attitude. The depiction of the geese are also particularly interesting. Geese descending is a theme which has strong poetic associations with Autumn and has been extolled by both painters and musicians alike in the well-known song for the guqin 'Wild Geese Descending on the Sandbank' (平沙落雁). This theme attained renown within Chinese literary and artistic circles during the Song period and continued from then on. See also for example, a painting of geese descending by Bian Shoumin (1683-1752), in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (acc.no.90.513). the painting 'Wild Geese and Hibiscus' by Bian Wenjin (ca.1356-1428), in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated by Hou-mei Sung, Decoded Messages: The Symbolic Language of Chinese Animal Painting , New Haven, 2009, p.68. The painting (though with five birds) shows wild geese on a river shore in the four aspects of flying, calling, sleeping and eating, a traditional grouping. Geese over time had many different meanings from orderliness in flight, to their ability toe and go as they pleased, to their apparent busyness and friend. During the Yuan dynasty, wild geese appear to have symbolised the self-enforced leisure and freedom of retired Han Chinese scholars, indignant at their treatment under Mongolian rule. It could be perhaps, that Han Chinese scholars felt the same with impending foreign Manchu rule. It is likely that the present's lot design was based on the woodblock printed book Tuhui zongyi (圖繪宗彝), juan 8, which also shows geese descending, and was published in 1607. The cover depicts a rabbit gazing at the moon. This is a reference to the Goddess of the Moon'spanion, the moon rabbit, sometimes also known as the Jade rabbit, who constantly pounds herbs into an elixir of longevity for Chang'e. In time, the rabbit became synonymous with the moon.