SONG/MING DYNASTY, 13TH-16TH CENTURY

This dish is quite similar to one in the Honolulu Academy of Arts, included in the exhibition, Chinese Ceramics from the Prehistoric Period through Ch'ien Lung, Los Angeles County Museum, 1952, p. 80, no. 171. The shape and size of the fish on the interior and their close proximity to each other is very similar, as is the type of dark crackle in the glaze. The glaze on that dish, however, is described as green celadon, while that on the present dish is opaque and of greenish-grey color. The Honolulu dish is also lacking the pairs of holes in the rim. A Longquan celadon twin-fish dish in the Percival David Foundation and previously in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark, not only has the two pairs of holes in the rim, but they are fitted with the original copper handles and floret mounts. There is a copper mount on the rim as well. This is thought to be the only dish of this type still retaining the original handles. See M. Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares, London, 1977, pl. VI, no. 54. Another similar dish also in the collection is illustrated pl. VI, no. 55, but like the present dish it is missing its handles. Another Longquan celadon dish of this type also missing its handles is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; gonyi meishu bian; taoci 3, Shanghai, 1988, p. 40, no. 41.