A MASSIVE FAMILLE ROSE 'PAIRED BIRDS' FISHBOWL Qianlong period, circa 1750 Of rounded globular form with everted rim, decorated in famille rose enamels in a continuous scene around the exterior sides of the vessel with a variety of paired birds including cranes, and swallows, and with a pair of phoenix (fenghuang) center stage amidst rockwork, peony and wutong, all set between iron-red bands of a wavy scroll below and leafy scrolls with gilt lotus flowerheads above, the side with large biscuit lion-mask handles with gilt metal rings, the interior sides with three carp in pink, white and iron red and a smaller carp in blue and centered by a faint iron red carp and fronds. 24in (61cm) diam Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1750年 大件粉彩《禽鳥成雙》獸面耳魚缸 Published Cohen & Cohen, Take Two!, Antwerp, 2017, pp. 74-75, no. 31 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Take Two!》，安特衛普，2017年，頁74-75，圖版編號31 Swimming fish are objects of great interest to Chinese connoisseurs of fish stock, especially the large plump carp called koi, China's most ornamental and expensive fish type. Koi (or more specifically nishikigoi), are colored varieties of the Amur carp that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens. Koi is an informal name for the colored variants of C. rubrofuscus. Kept therefore for ornamental not culinary purposes, 'koi carps' key feature is that they are almost invariably asymmetrically colored on their bodies with patches of iron-red, gray and black areas, and the accidental patterns which these natural colorations can create are avidly studied by buyers. Normally carp are kept in ponds as they grow quite large, but there is a long tradition in China of keeping and displaying ornamental fish in extremely large bowls, a tradition apparently not observed elsewhere because no other ceramic culture has actually generated (or perhaps even been able to fire, until the 19th century) exceptionally large porcelain bowls painted around the interion with exotic fish swimming among long trailing green waterweed. The present below therefore is unusual because although it follows in a Chinese tradition of potting such massive ornamental bowls for domestic Chinese indoor usage (if left outside, a cold Chinese winter would freeze the water and burst the bowls), the style of decoration very much suggests an Export market. It is possible that fishbowls are one of the few shapes popular with Western buyers that were in fact made for Chinese domestic use, and these splendid bowls were simply bought by supercargoes (probably as 'private trade' not 'Company cargo') because they believed they would sell well in Europe. However, it is odd that similar fishbowls never seen to turn up in mainland Chinese collections; and when they carry designs on the outside which are exclusively Export-taste in origin, like ones with tobacco-leaf designs (see lot no. 149), these are clearly being made with China Trade supercargoes as the purchasers.