Large Vintage Export Chinese Satsuma Moriage Koi Fish Bowl With Geisha Scene

  

Large Vintage Export Chinese Satsuma Moriage Koi Fish Bowl With Geisha Scene. This striking porcelain bowl measures 24cm high, 30.5cm across the rim and 20.5cm across the base. It weighs just over 5.6kg.

In very good condition, with no chips or cracks but just the odd contact mark and spot of wear here & there to the applied enamels & gilt - consistent with its age and likely level of use. It probably dates from somewhere around the 1950s. These bowls are generally used as planters, although it has always felt a shame to me that the Koi fish and sea plants painted inside the bowl (from which it gets its name) can be hidden by such use. Anyway, each to their own.

Note that unlike the very large fish bowls - measuring perhaps 40cm high & in diameter and weighing in at well over 10kg 15kg? - this bowl is still light enough to move around and small enough for decorating without dominating the space within a room. Please see the high resolution images provide to form your own view of the condition, attribution and attractiveness of the piece.