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Lot Essay
Accompanied by a fitted presentation box.
The present carp-shaped watch is an unusual example of a form watch, highly fashionable in China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Other animal-shaped watches are illustrated in The Chinese Watch by Alfred Chapuis, chapter "Jewelled Watches", p. 231– 233.
A long tradition of Asian carp exists in Chinese culture and literature. A popular lyric circulating as early as 2000 years ago in the late Han period includes an anecdote which relates how a man far away from home sent back to his wife a pair of carp, in which, when the wife opened the fish to cook, she found a silk strip that carried a love note of just two lines: “Eat well to keep fit” (first line) and “Missing you and forget me not” (second line).
The present carp-shaped watch is an unusual example of a form watch, highly fashionable in China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Other animal-shaped watches are illustrated in The Chinese Watch by Alfred Chapuis, chapter "Jewelled Watches", p. 231– 233.
A long tradition of Asian carp exists in Chinese culture and literature. A popular lyric circulating as early as 2000 years ago in the late Han period includes an anecdote which relates how a man far away from home sent back to his wife a pair of carp, in which, when the wife opened the fish to cook, she found a silk strip that carried a love note of just two lines: “Eat well to keep fit” (first line) and “Missing you and forget me not” (second line).