Chinese style bowl/plate? Help please!

[Martiimum]

I found this crazy thing in my dad's stuff. It's so crazy I can't imagine it would be worth anything. I can't tell if it's a bowl or a plate... or something else. I don't even know where to start looking for more information on this one.

It has some kind of fish on it and some other dark coloured pattern. There is not a single mark on the bottom. Just dirty looking. The finish seems to have some kind of very minor blemishes.
It also has those tiny cracks all over but I heard that was easy to reproduce (like anything with Chinese ceramics these days I guess.

So basically help me please with the following if possible:
1. what do I call it?
2. What would it of been used for?
3. Who would of made something like this?
4. When would of it of been made?

Thanks in advance.

[Stan]

With a hole in the bottom, I would call this a planter pot, used to put a plant in, the bottom foot would make this a later piece, 20 century, a copy of ming dynasty I think.

[Martiimum]

Thanks for your reply.
Still weird to me. I've had very little exposure.
We had a good laugh about this one when we found it.

[peterp]

20th century. This is another fake item.

Stan, I have seen old double bottom bowls, but they looked a bit different.There was a hole in the lower bottom. That would be necessary to avoid the bursting of the bowl during firing. Items with enclosed spaces are likely to split open during firing.
At first I thought they were a joke or fakes.

Not sure if the story is true, but it goes that the bowls were used in the distant past of China for deception during armed conflict. When provisions of one side were dangerously low the remaining smaller rations were eaten from double bottom bowls, to deceive the watching spies of the enemy, giving the impression that there was still full supply.
I advise to take this with a grain of salt, but be prepared that there might be some truth in it ...

[Stan]

Thanks for explaining the double bottom bowl, I thought that it was a bowl with a hole and that separate plate I did not realize that it was one piece, I learn something every day, thanks.