A SMALL LONGQUAN CELADON TWIN-FISH DISH
A SMALL LONGQUAN CELADON TWIN-FISH DISH

LATE SOUTHERN SONG/YUAN DYNASTY, 13TH-14TH CENTURY

Details
A SMALL LONGQUAN CELADON TWIN-FISH DISH
LATE SOUTHERN SONG/YUAN DYNASTY, 13TH-14TH CENTURY
The exterior of the deep rounded sides carved with a band of petals rising from the foot to the flat everted rim, and the interior decorated in the center with two molded fish, covered overall with a glaze of sea-green tone except for the foot rim burnt reddish-brown in the firing
5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm.) diam., box
Provenance
H.M. Knight, Esq.; Sotheby's, London, 12 May 1970, lot 34.
Sotheby's, London, 11 July 1978, lot 159.
Exhibited
New Orleans Museum of Art, Heaven and Earth Seen Within, 2000, no. 60.

Lot Essay

Paired fish symbolize fertility and connubial bliss, and they are also one of the Eight Buddhist symbols.
Dishes of this type, known as 'twin fish' dishes, were popular products of the Longquan kilns during the late Southern Song to early Ming period. Similar dishes have been recovered from Southern Song kilns in the Longquan region, such as the bowl unearthed at Jincun, illustrated in Longquan Qingci Yanjiu, Beijing, 1989, pl. 36:3. Longquan molded fish dishes of this type were recovered from the cargo of a trading vessel that sank off the coast of Sinan, South Korea, in the 1320s, and were included in the Special Exhibition of Cultural Relics Found off the Sinan Coast, National Museum of Korea, Seoul, 1977, pl. 28. Other examples are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Lung-chu'än Ware, Ko Ware and other Wares, Taipei, 1974, pl. 26, and in the Percival David Foundation, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares, rev. ed., London, 1997, p. 27, no. 265.

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