Museum Explorer
Tools and technology in Asia
Porcelain fish dish
From: Jingdezhen, southern China
Date: 14th century AD
Blue and white Chinese porcelain is the most well known around the world. The Chinese discovered how to make porcelain around 1400 years ago, about 1000 years before Europeans. Much early Chinese porcelain was sent overseas to countries like Portugal, Spain and England.
This dish has a picture of a fish swimming in a pond full of weed. The Chinese word for fish and the word for richness/plenty (yu) are the same, so the fish means wealth.
