B49

Chalcedony, pale grey with a creamy opaque white skin, simply carved to represent a duck, its head looking back over its shoulders, its eye simply incised, below the duck the waves cut from the grey material; the bottle of flattened form with raised oval foot rim and concave mouth.

Chinese, 1750-1850
Stopper: amethyst on metal collar
Provenance: Joan Wasserman collection
Hugh Moss Ltd, London, 1974
Height: 6.9cm

This is a simple but extremely effective rendition of the much loved duck, the contrast within the grey agate is perfect and the whole work of art completed with a minimum of fuss - a little digging here, a little incising there - showing again that less is more.