Do you remember the porcelain decanter in the shape of a fish, with little fish-shaped glasses, found in so many Soviet interiors?

Do you remember the porcelain decanter in the shape of a fish, with little fish-shaped glasses, found in so many Soviet interiors? We have such a fish at home too, inherited from my grandmother, and in two colour variations at that; it was mass-produced at the porcelain factory in the Ukrainian town of Polonne between the 1950s and 1970s. As a child I adored gazing at this blue fish. It was only occasionally taken out of the sideboard to be rid of its dust, and only then did I manage to look my fill at that beautiful, extraordinary and mysterious fish with its brood. Imagine my astonishment when I discovered a very similar vessel in the collection of Waddesdon Manor! Japanese porcelain was highly prized in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, so much so that it was mounted in metal, like a rare and precious material. What this Japanese Kakiemon fish of 1680-90 was intended for is unknown, and I have not managed to find similar objects in any catalogues, but when it reached France in the 1700s it was used as a perfume fountain. Though that too was perhaps merely for decoration, and some child, no doubt, gazed at it spellbound