A carved dingyao porcelain dish, China, Northern Song dynasty (A.D. 960-1127). Photo Nagel Auktionen

decorated on the interior with a stylized lotus spray on a single stem sprouting curly leaves, the freely drawn design filling the flat central medaillon enclosed by narrow flaring straight sides rising from a chamfered foot, covered inside and out with a clear translucent glaze continuing over the foot and very slightly recessed base, the edge of the mouth rim unglazed, showing the fine white porcelain  - Good condition. D. 13,8 cm. Estimate 12 000/15 000 €

Provenance: Former T.T.Tsui Collection, Hongkong

A Dingyao dish of this form and size in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, carved with a similar lotus and foliage motif is illustrated in Dingyao baici tezhan tulu (Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ting Ware Porcelain), Taipei, 1987, no. 113.

Compare also the Dingyao dish of related form, similarly carved with a lotus spray curved to fill the flat interior, illustrated by Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume One, London, 1994, p. 204, no. 358, where the author cites a similar carved Dingyao dish discovered in a tomb dated by epitaph between A.D. 1153 and A.D. 1160, illustrated in line drawings in Wenwu, 1988, No. 7, p. 62, fig. 16-5

Nagel Auktionen. 2013/05/08. http://www.auction.de/