.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This elegantly potted and decorated Ding bowl was made at the apogee of incised decoration at the Ding kilns - the Northern Song period. The decorator, working with a fine white body and slightly ivory-toned transparent glaze, has made subtle use of incised parallel lines to emphasize the major parts of the design. The particular theme on this bowl is one of the most admired, as well as auspicious, seen on incised Ding wares. The two mandarin ducks are in themselves symbols of conjugal felicity, for these ducks were believed to mate for life. They are depicted swimming on a lotus pond, which provides a further rebus for harmony.
This was a design particularly admired by the Chinese court, as can be seen from the number of examples bearing this decoration in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Indeed, a bowl sharing the identical shape and size with the current bowl, as well as the same decorative theme is illustrated in Dingyao baici tezhan tulu, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, no. 44. Three more bowls of similar shape and of almost the same size from the National Palace Museum collection, also decorated with this theme are published in the same volume as nos. 43, 45 and 46. Designs of ducks on a lotus pond were also incised into bowls of slightly different proportions, as can be seen from further examples in the National Palace Museum. The design is shown on a conical bowl illustrated in Dingyao baici tezhan tulu, op. cit., no. 72, and on a flared rim bowl, no. 77. The design was also appreciated by the court on molded Ding wares, as shown by the bowls illustrated as nos. 39-42 in the same volume.
A Ding bowl of the same form and almost the same size as the current example, which also has an incised design of ducks on a lotus pond, which was formerly in the Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1989, p. 79, no. 67. This decorative theme on incised Ding wares was also a favorite of the famous British collector and scholar Sir Percival David. His collection includes a bowl of the same size as the current bowl, although with slightly lobed rim, a conical bowl, and two bowls with flaring sides all decorated with incised versions of this design. These are published in Illustrated Catalogue of Ting and Allied Wares, Percival David Foundation, London, 1980, nos. 33, 16, 24 and 26 respectively.
This was a design particularly admired by the Chinese court, as can be seen from the number of examples bearing this decoration in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan. Indeed, a bowl sharing the identical shape and size with the current bowl, as well as the same decorative theme is illustrated in Dingyao baici tezhan tulu, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, no. 44. Three more bowls of similar shape and of almost the same size from the National Palace Museum collection, also decorated with this theme are published in the same volume as nos. 43, 45 and 46. Designs of ducks on a lotus pond were also incised into bowls of slightly different proportions, as can be seen from further examples in the National Palace Museum. The design is shown on a conical bowl illustrated in Dingyao baici tezhan tulu, op. cit., no. 72, and on a flared rim bowl, no. 77. The design was also appreciated by the court on molded Ding wares, as shown by the bowls illustrated as nos. 39-42 in the same volume.
A Ding bowl of the same form and almost the same size as the current example, which also has an incised design of ducks on a lotus pond, which was formerly in the Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1989, p. 79, no. 67. This decorative theme on incised Ding wares was also a favorite of the famous British collector and scholar Sir Percival David. His collection includes a bowl of the same size as the current bowl, although with slightly lobed rim, a conical bowl, and two bowls with flaring sides all decorated with incised versions of this design. These are published in Illustrated Catalogue of Ting and Allied Wares, Percival David Foundation, London, 1980, nos. 33, 16, 24 and 26 respectively.