A carved 'Ding' 'mandarin ducks' dish, Northern Song dynasty | 北宋 定窰白釉荷塘鴛鴦圖盤

Hong Kong Private Collection, acquired in the 1990s. 

香港私人收藏，得於1990年代

The present dish, fluently incised with one of the classic designs of a pair of waterfowl in a pond, displays the characteristics attributed to the finest Ding wares. Celebrated for their thin potting and fine near-white body which did not require an application of slip and an ivory-colored glaze which tends to run down in somewhat darker 'tears', Ding wares were ranked among the 'Five Great Wares' of the Song, a term coined by collectors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The high quality of this bowl is evident in its feather-light weight body which has been expertly evenly glazed. Ding designs generally display a high level of naturalness and fluidity, but the maker of this bowl appears to have been particularly skilled at rendering lines in a spontaneous manner, creating a decoration that is precise yet particularly free in execution.

Three dishes of comparable form and pattern, attributed to the Northern Song to Jin dynasty, are included in Decorated Porcelains of Dingzhou. White Ding wares from the collection of the National Palace Museum, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, cat. nos II-73, II-74, and II-75.