A carved Dingyao 'mandarin ducks' dish, Northern Song dynasty | 北宋 定窰劃荷塘鴛鴦折腰盤

Collection of Dr David Goldstein, New York. 

J.J. Lally & Co., New York.

The Ten-Views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, coll. no. LL37.

David Goldstein 醫生收藏

藍理捷，紐約

十面靈璧山居收藏，編號LL37

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, fine near-white body which did not require an application of slip and an ivory-coloured 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 his lines in a spontaneous manner, creating a decoration that is precise yet particularly free in the 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, Taipei, 2014, cat. nos II-73, II-74, and II-75.