This vase is of ovoid form and brightly decorated in red, green, yellow and blue with quatrefoil panels reserved against a trefoil ground - of iron-red – each containing a fish swimming amongst aquatic weeds and flowers. The short neck is decorated with stylised waves interspersed with Daoist symbols. The cover is matched. Height with lid 36.2 cm
Purchased from Bonhams Bond Street, London, November 2008, Lot 3. The Avalon Collection. This collection, which
in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction. Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.