Very popular in Asia, the Koi Fish is a symbol of good fortune, virility, longevity and perseverance. This symbolism is rooted in an old Chinese legend: the perseverance of a Koi fish swimming the Yellow River upstream; fighting the current to reach the top of the waterfall to be rewarded by the gods who turned it into a golden dragon. The carp has thus become a symbol of success, determination and destiny fulfilled. This legend remains celebrated today during Koinobori, when young children are wished success. This Carpes Koi vase majestically embodies this ancestral legend with twelve Koi fish swimming upstream in swirls of satin-finished crystal. Trained as a jeweler at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris in the late 1880's, Rene Lalique gained recognition as an independent designer for some of the era's great jewelry houses including Cartier and Boucheron. Eventually, he turned to glassmaking, and his techniques were a triumph for the Art Deco movement. Every piece of Lalique is finely detailed and produced by hand in Alsace, France.