A large plain white-glazed foliate bowl, Song dynasty (960-1279). © Christie's Image 2003

The slightly rounded, widely flared sides subtly potted inside and out as six lobes rising to a notched rim, covered allover with a crackle-suffused glaze of ivory tone. 8 3/8in. (21.3cm.) diam. Lot 241. Estimate $6,000 - $8,000. Price Realized $7,170 

Provenance: Professor Jan Hellner Collection, no. ck 16.
James B. Godfrey 

Notes: This bowl is of a classic shape, found in a number of Song dynasty wares. The current example is closely linked to Ding wares, and a slightly larger Northern Song Ding ware example, with somewhat more defined notches in the rim and the characters xin guan inscribed on the exterior base in the collection of the Hebei Provincial Museum at Dingxian is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji, 9, Dingyao, Shanghai/Tokyo, 1981, no. 25. Another Ding ware bowl of similar shape and size to the current bowl, but with incised decoration on the interior and a copper alloy band around the mouth rim in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ting Ware White Porcelain, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1987, no. 33. Ding ware versions of this bowl form with six-petal rim usually have the lobes indicated on the walls of the bowl, as on two other bowls with incised decoration in the National Palace Museum, ibid. nos. 37 and 104. 

CHRISTIE'S. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza