Lot 377. A Longquan celadon 'Twin fish' dish, Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279); 22.3 cm, 8 3/4  in. Estimate 200,000 - 300,000 HKD. Unsold. © Sotheby's.

the rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to a flat everted rim, the interior moulded with a pair of addorsed carp, the exterior with lotus petals, covered overall save for the footring in a sage-green glaze, Japanese box.

Provenance: A Japanese private collection.

Note: Dishes of this popular ‘twin fish’ design were produced from the Southern Song dynasty to the Yuan dynasty. Compare a similar Southern Song dynasty example from the collection of Sakamoto Goro, sold in our New York rooms, 16th September 2014, lot 2. For an early example see a dish in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, included in the exhibition Ice and Green Clouds. Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1987, cat. no. 77, together with various related dishes and shards of both Song and Yuan periods, figs 77a-g. Another Song example is published in Longquan qingci [Longquan celadon], Beijing, 1966, pl. 32; and one from the Riesco collection was sold twice in our London rooms, in 1984 and 1986, and again at Christie’s New York, 19th September 2007, lot 260.  See also a smaller example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 11, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 51; and another from the Sir Percival David collection and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Stacey Pierson, Designs as Signs. Decoration and Chinese Ceramics, London, 2001, pl. 11, where the author discusses the ‘twin fish’ motif as an auspicious symbol of harmonious marriage and good fortune (p. 19). 

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, HongKong, 28 november 2018, 10:15 AM