EARLY NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, LATE 10TH CENTURY

This bowl is very similar in size, form and decoration to a bowl excavated from the digong (underground palace) of the Jingzhi Temple Pagoda at Dingzhou in Hebei province in 1969. The temple was built in AD 977, and the items sealed up in its digong were presented by the faithful. These included gold, silver and other precious materials as well as fine ceramics. The Ding ware bowl similar to the Falk example is illustrated in Treasures from the Underground Palaces - Excavated Treasures from Northern Song Pagodas, Dingzhou, Hebei, China, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1997, no. 69.

Both the temple bowl and the Falk bowl have a distinctive profile and are carved with three rows of broad overlapping petals on the exterior. The petals all have a low central ridge of the type seen on fine Yue wares of the Five Dynasties period. Since fine Yue wares were the most highly prized ceramics in the early 10th century, it is to be expected that aspects of Yue style would be copied by other prestigious wares. The temple bowl and Falk bowl also have the character guan (official) incised on their bases through the glaze. In view of the close similarity between the Falk bowl and the bowl excavated from the Jingzhi Temple Pagoda, the Falk bowl should be dated to the late 10th century, early Northern Song, and may be assumed to have been made at the Ding kilns.