A RARE UNDERGLAZE-BLUE AND COPPER-RED 'FISH' BOWL QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD

thickly potted with steep curving sides rising to a wide inverted mouth with lipped rim, the sides well painted in copper-red with a continuous scene of large scaly fish swimming amid flowing currents picked out in fine wavy lines, scattered with lotus blooms and leaves and fronds of pondweed, all between double line bands in underglaze-blue at the foot and mouth, hardwood stand

A fish bowl of this design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 38, pl. 21; another in the Shanghai Museum is published in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 77; and one from the Hong Kong Museum of Art was included in the exhibition The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat.no. 11.

Compare also a Kangxi fish jar, from the collection of the Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong and illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 54, sold in our London rooms, 15th December 1987, lot 193; and another from the Morrill Collection sold at Doyle New York, 16th September 2003, lot 110.