China, 2nd century BC to 2nd century AD. The bulbous body raised on a spreading foot ring and surmounted by an arched neck terminating in a duck head, neatly detailed with round eyes and a long beak, a rimmed aperture in the top of the head, the vessel finely painted in red, black, and white with feathers and geometric decorations between horizontal bands.

Provenance: From the collection of Joseph Rondina (1927-2022), who was born into a first-generation Florentine-American family in Auburn, upstate New York. Returning to the U.S. after being stationed in Berlin at the end of the Second World War, he studied at the Whitman School of Design before opening Joseph Rondina Antiques on Madison Avenue in Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1957. In the beginning, his interests focused primarily on European 18th-century decorative arts and furniture, over time developing to include Chinese, Korean, Indian, Thai, Cambodian, Persian and Japanese art, bringing a more esoteric and exotic style to the market. His clientele included stars of the stage and screen, royalty, notables, dignitaries, and denizens of the social register from the United States and abroad.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Old repairs and minor touchups as generally expected from authentic Han dynasty excavations. Wear, flaking, losses to pigment, small nicks, minor chips, light scratches, soil encrustations.

Weight: 3.5 kg
Dimensions: Height 32.2 cm

Literature comparison:
Compare a related goose-headed vessel, 34.8 cm high, dated to the Western Han dynasty, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1994.605.17. A closely related vessel in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is illustrated in A Handbook of the Collection, New York, 1993, p. 286 (upper left). Compare the smaller (21 cm) pair of painted pottery ducks dated to the Han dynasty, 1st century BC or 1st century AD, in the Meiyintang Collection, illustrated by Regina Krahl in Chinese Ceramics in the Meiyintang Collection, London, vol. 1, London, 1994, p. 49, fig. 14. Like the present vessel, the Meiyintang vessels also have apertures at the top.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie's, 21 March 2000, lot 239
Price: USD 6,900 or approx. EUR 11,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A grey pottery duck-headed vessel, Warring States period/Western Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form with a similar aperture in the top of the head. Note this vessel shows only faint traces of pigment as opposed to the present lot. Note the closely related size (33 cm).