Arita carp-shaped wall vase

An image of Carp-shaped wall vase. Production Place: Japan, Arita. The carp, hollow-moulded, leaps upwards supported by its curling tail and rests on a simple base with an uneven and gritty underside. The body is finely moulded with scales and gills, and the fins and tail finely incised. The head, upper half of the body, dorsal fin and tail are covered in a wash of underglaze blue, the lower half with pale red enamel and covered with a bluish glaze; details of the tail, fins and head are outlined in gold; the large open mouth is picked out in red and gold and a beady eye in gold with a recessed pupil. The back of the model is flat and undecorated except where the underglaze blue has flowed. A hole is pierced in the centre of the back for suspension and at the base of the tail. Hard-paste porcelain decorated underglaze in blue and overglaze in red, pale-red, gold and violet enamels, and gold, height, whole, 24.2 cm, diameter, whole, 13.3 cm, width, whole, 15.5 cm, circa 1700-1800.

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Carp-shaped wall vase. Production Place: Japan, Arita. The carp, hollow-moulded, leaps upwards supported by its curling tail and rests on a simple base with an uneven and gritty underside. The body is finely moulded with scales and gills, and the fins and tail finely incised. The head, upper half of the body, dorsal fin and tail are covered in a wash of underglaze blue, the lower half with pale red enamel and covered with a bluish glaze; details of the tail, fins and head are outlined in gold; the large open mouth is picked out in red and gold and a beady eye in gold with a recessed pupil. The back of the model is flat and undecorated except where the underglaze blue has flowed. A hole is pierced in the centre of the back for suspension and at the base of the tail. Hard-paste porcelain decorated underglaze in blue and overglaze in red, pale-red, gold and violet enamels, and gold, height, whole, 24.2 cm, diameter, whole, 13.3 cm, width, whole, 15.5 cm, circa 1700-1800.

Image data

Accession Number: C.40-1998
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal length: 120
Camera: Hasselblad H3DII-31
Photographer name: Amy Jugg
Image height: 1025 pixels
Image width: 734 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)
Filesize: 389.55kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 22/1

Key words

18th Century Arita Factory carp ceramics enamel enamelled fins fish Fitz_AA glazed Japanese moulded overglaze porcelain scales scaly studio ceramics underglaze vase wall vase

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            The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024)
            "Arita carp-shaped wall vase"
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