Page 146 - Bonhams Catalog Cohen and Cohen Jan 24, 2023 New York

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A MASSIVE FAMILLE ROSE ‘PAIRED BIRDS’ FISHBOWL patterns which these natural colorations can create are avidly studied
Qianlong period, circa 1750 by buyers.
of rounded globular form with everted rim, decorated in famille rose Normally carp are kept in ponds as they grow quite large, but there is
enamels in a continuous scene around the exterior sides of the vessel a long tradition in China of keeping and displaying ornamental fish in
with a variety of paired birds including cranes, swallows, bulbul ? and extremely large bowls, a tradition apparently not observed elsewhere
with a pair of phoenix (fenghuang) center stage amidst rockwork, because no other ceramic culture has actually generated (or perhaps
peony and wutong, all set between iron-red bands of a wavy scroll even been able to fire, until the 19th century) exceptionally large
below and leafy scrolls with gilt lotus flowerheads above, the side with porcelain bowls painted around the interion with exotic fish swimming
large biscuit lion-mask handles with gilt metal rings, the interior sides among long trailing green waterweed.
with three carp in pink, white and iron red and a smaller carp in blue
and centered by a faint iron red carp and fronds. The present below therefore is unusual because although it follows
24in (61cm) diam in a Chinese tradition of potting such massive ornamental bowls for
domestic Chinese indoor usage (if left outside, a cold Chinese winter
$25,000 - 45,000 would freeze the water and burst the bowls), the style of decoration
very much suggests an Export market. It is possible that fishbowls
乾隆時期 約1750年 大件粉彩《禽鳥成雙》獸面耳魚缸 are one of the few shapes popular with Western buyers that were
in fact made for Chinese domestic use, and these splendid bowls
Published: were simply bought by supercargoes (probably as ‘private trade’
Cohen & Cohen, Take Two!, Antwerp, 2017, pp. 74-75, no. 31 not ‘Company cargo’) because they believed they would sell well in
Europe. However, it is odd that similar fishbowls never seen to turn
出版： up in mainland Chinese collections; and when they carry designs on
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Take Two!》，安特衛普，2017年，頁 the outside which are exclusively Export-taste in origin, like ones with
74-75，圖版編號31 tobacco-leaf designs (see lot no. XXXX), these are clearly being made
with China Trade supercargoes as the purchasers.
Swimming fish are objects of great interest to Chinese connoisseurs
of fish stock, especially the large plump carp called koi, China’s
most ornamental and expensive fish type. Koi (or more specifically
nishikigoi), are colored varieties of the Amur carp that are kept for
decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens. Koi is
an informal name for the colored variants of C. rubrofuscus. Kept
therefore for ornamental not culinary purposes, ‘koi carps’ key feature
is that they are almost invariably asymmetrically colored on their bodies
with patches of iron-red, gray and black areas, and the accidental

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