Lot 262. An Important Wucai 'Fish' Jar and Cover, Jiajing Mark and Period. Height 16 1/8 in., 40.8 cm. Estimate 500,000-700,000 USD. Lot sold 1,986,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the stoutly potted globular body decorated in vibrant transparent enamels with a continuous frieze of large golden carp swimming amidst lotus and waterweed, the fish in reddish-orange with fins and scales penciled in iron red, the lotus blossoms in bright yellow and iron red with leaves of pale green growing alongside feathery and spiky grasses in purplish underglaze blue, yellow and green with iron red and reddish-brown outlines, all beneath clusters of waterweed and scattered floating blossoms, the plain neck rising from a collar of brightly enameled petal lappets, the base encircled by an underglaze blue border of overlapping leaf tips, the domed cover surmounted by a bud finial of ribbon panels in blue, green, yellow and red rising from a radiating medallion of beaded jewels and the 'Eight Buddhist Emblems', the steep sides of the cover with a narrow band of golden yellow carp and waterweed, six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle (2). 

Provenance: Collection of Henry Walters (1848-1931), Baltimore.

Property of The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, sold to Benefit The Asian Art Acquisitions Fund

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 11 sept. 2012