A fine carved 'Ding' 'lotus' lobed dish, Northern Song dynasty

Collection of Sir Keith Murdoch (1985-1952).

Yeo, Crosthwaite & Co, Melbourne, 11th-13th March 1953, lot 353.

Collection of Samuel H. Minkenhof (1879-1956), and thence by descent.

‘Ding’ wares, produced in Quyang, Hebei province, rank among the Five Great Wares of the Song dynasty (960-1279) and represent one of the most celebrated ceramic traditions of the period. This finely carved dish, decorated with a lotus motif, exemplifies the restrained elegance and refined craftsmanship for which Ding wares is renowned. Compare a similar ‘lotus’ lobed dish of similar size, the rim bounded with copper, sold at Christie’s London, 28th /29th June 1965, lot 277, and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 6th April 2016, lot 1, from the Pilkington Collection. A closely related dish with a plain rim, was sold at Christie’s London, 8th December 1986, lot 232, and again in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2011, lot 513. 

See also a related dish preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1992, pl. 29; and another of similar form but undecorated, from the J.T. Tai Collection, sold in our New York rooms, 22nd March 2011, lot 294. Two further undecorated ‘Ding’ dishes of comparable form, excavated from the clan cemetery of the eminent Northern Song scholar Lu Dalin (1038–1093), were included in the exhibition A Tone Through Ages. Fine Relics Unearthed from the Cemetery of the Lu Clan in Lantian, Shaanxi Province, Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology, Peking University, 2013, cat. nos 30-31.