Lot 4, A ‘Ding’ lobed ‘fish’ dish, Song dynasty. Estimate 120,000 — 180,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,120,000 HKD (239,330 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

the flat base rising to flaring sides divided into six lobes by raised vertical ribs, freely carved to the interior with a pair of fish swimming amongst rippled waves, applied overall with a creamy ivory glaze, the lobed rim bound with copper; 14.7 cm, 5 3/4  in.

Provenance: Collection of Martin D. Corke, until 1959. 
Sotheby's London, 17th February 1959, lot 13 (£150). 
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1959 (£150)
Collection of Roger Pilkington (1928-69), from 1959 (£200).

Notes: Dishes of this elegant lobed form and carved with a vibrant and freely rendered design of fishes amongst waves are rare, although a similar example, but with the fishes swimming in opposite directions, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Decorated Porcelains of Dingzhou. White Ding Wares from the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, cat. no. II-88, together with another dish, but modelled with a short foot and carved with a single fish, pl. II-89.

Highly reproductive and often found swimming in pairs, fish symbolise marriage, many children and abundance, as well as being emblems of harmony and conjugal bliss; hence a pair of fish swimming in water creates the wish for a couple to be as harmonious as fish and water (yushui hexie).

Sotheby's. The Pilkington Collection of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 06 Apr 2016, 10:00 AM