Pair of double fish vases with mounts

A pair of Chinese porcelain vases with French gilt-bronze mounts in the form of two carp upright with bodies conjoined (one of the Eight Buddhist Emblems), their linked open mouths forming an opening, their bodies moulded with scales and fins, their tails overlapping above waves on the low spreading foot, their dorsal fins as a pair of side handles. Each vase is set in a pierced gilt-bronze base formed from C-scroll feet and acanthus leaves rising at each side, the degraded glaze of the lip of RCIN 18.1 suggesting that this too was once mounted.

The gilt-bronze mounts are low quality, probably early nineteenth century in date. The pierced stands are thin with coarse chased detail, uncharacteristic of quality French eighteenth-century work.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume II.