Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 19 march 2013
A finely carved 'Ding' dish, Song dynasty (960-1279)
Lot 36. A finely carved 'Ding' dish, Song dynasty (960-1279). Diameter 7 3/8 in., 18.6 cm. Estimate 120,000 - 150,000 USD. Unsold. © Sotheby's
with shallow rounded sides, the interior freely carved with meandering lotus blossoms, all under a transparent ivory-tinted glaze pooling in the recesses, the rim unglazed, Japanese wood box (8).
Provenance: Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo, acquired between 1960-1969.
Ehibited: Soji meihin ten, Japan Ceramic Society, Tokyo, 1962, cat. no. 10.
Note: This attractive dish embodies a wide range of contrasting Chinese art traditions in its form and decoration. The angular shape of this dish has been inspired by silverware and was achieved by throwing the basic form on a wheeldrying it to a leather-like hardness and then pressing it over a mold. In its design, the swiftly and lightly carved decoration resembles quick paintings in brush and ink while the use of single and double lines adds a threedimensionality to the design.
A closely related dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Selection of Ding Ware. The Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Beijing, 2012, pl. 60; another in the Meiyintang collection is published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, pl. 362; a third from the Sir Percival David collection, and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Margaret Medley, Illustrated
Catalogue of Ting and Allied Wares, London, 1980, pl. V:39; and a pair of dishes of slightly smaller dimensions, from the Edward T. Chow collection was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 16th December 1980, lots 250 and 251, and sold again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 603, and 1st November 2004, lot 805 respectively. Compare also bowls of this type, but with subtly lobed rims, such as one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 73; another was included in the exhibition Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum. Ting Ware and Ting-type Ware, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1973, cat. no. 41; and a third example from the Eugene Bernat collection was sold in these rooms, 7th November 1980, lot 112.
Ding dishes of this form are known with various decorations, for example see one carved with a pair of ducks amongst water plants, from the Carl Kempe collection, sold in our London rooms, 14th May 2008, lot 255.