A rare Chinese blue and underglaze red bowl with carps and marine animals, Xuande mark, Kangxi Dia.: 19 cm - H.: 9 cm See also: - A dish of this rare design in The Victoria and Albert Museum, W. G. Gulland bequest, C.355-1931, is illustrated by Rose Kerr in Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, no. 55, p. 79, where the author notes, “It is painted with the leaping carp, a pattern with wide appeal owing to the association of the Chinese homophones for ‘abundance’ and ‘fish’. The reproductive powers of the fish may also explain its popularity as a peasant motif, while the jumping element is indicative of academic success. This is due to the story about the fish which swam up the Yellow river every year, and which on their way must leap up the dragon gate falls. Those that succeed in passing above the rapids are transformed into dragons.” Another dish of this design was included by Marchant in their exhibition of Seventeenth-Century Blue and White and Copper-Red and their Predecessors, 1997, no. 47, p. 49. - A bowl of this form bearing a Kangxi mark is illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of The Palace Museum, Beijing, Volume 36, no. 68, p. 78, and is also illustrated by Chen Run Min in Qing Dynasty Shunzhi and Kangxi Period, Underglaze Blue Porcelain in The Gugong Museum Collection, Beijing, 2005, no. 125, p. 204. - Sotheby's, Paris, June 12, 2013, lot 68, for a nearly identical bowl with a Kangxi mark. (link) - Marchant, 'Chinese Ceramics Tang to Qing', 2014, for another Kangxi-marked example.