Large fish tank with underglaze blue decoration

Description:

China, 19th cent.
D. 62 cm / H. 60 cm
The well potted body with convex sides and outwardly curved lip, decorated around the wall with two large cartouches of Shoulao with crane, Xiwang Mu with deer and Liuhai with cranes in a boat in roaring waves. The main images are framed by pendants with peaches, endless knots and sounding stones hanging down from bats, with butterflies in between, with fields of large branches of peonies and other flowers, framed by diamond-shaped borders with floral scrolls and medallions. Under the lip a dotted border, on the lip with 'broken ice' prunus decoration.
German private collection, acquired at Lempertz, Cologne, 8 June 2007, lot 126, former property of Archduke Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este (Graz 1863-1914 Sarajevo)
Publ. in "Führer durch die Sammlungen von der Weltreise seiner kaiserlichen Hoheit Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand 1892-1893", Vienna 1894, No. 61.
Exhibited:
Schloss Belvedere in Wien (1894)
Völkerkundemuseum Wien (1908)
Thereafter in the possession of the History Museum of city Vienna until 1982