QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

The distinctive shape of this jade washer is after the archaic bronze pan from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, while the double-fish decoration is inspired by ornamentation found on Han dynasty bronze pan. Compare to a Qianlong-marked jade rounded washer (30.2 cm. diam.) with twin scaled fish in contact on their bellies and tails, illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court,Taipei, 1997, no. 7 (fig. 1). See also a jade washer (25.5 cm. diam.) of similar form and decorated with detached twin fish, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 28 November 1979, lot 405, and another comparable smaller white jade dish (9.3 cm. diam.) sold at Christie’s London, 9 November 2010, lot 123.