Lot 3109. A superb and rare inscribed Ding pentafoil dish, Five dynasties (907-960). Estimate HK$2,800,000 – HK$3,500,000 (US$362,144 - $452,680). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The dish is delicately potted with rounded sides flaring from the short foot ring to a rim neatly pared into five pointed petals. It is covered overall with a lustrous clear glaze inside and out with the exception of the foot revealing the fine white porcelain body. The centre of the base is insiced with the character guan. 5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm.) diam., box

Notes: Five Dynasties (907-960) is considered as the most important transitional periods in Chinese art history. In order to avoid political chaos, many literati artists became hermits and lived their reclusive lives in the mountains where they sought inspiration from nature. The genre of landscape painting, which was so esteemed in later periods was perfected during that period. The quest for nature also affected ceramic art in the Five Dynasties. Various flower-shaped forms were created by both northern and southern kilns. In the Ding kilns, quatrefoil dishes and mallow-shaped dishes were widely produced, and yet the pentafoil dish with its sides modelled as naturalistic flower petals such as the present lot is extremely rare. Two very similar guan-marked pentafoil dishes found in the hoard attributed to the late Tang Dynasty at Huoshaobi village, Xi'an city are illustrated in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji (Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China), Beijing, 2008, vol. 15, pp. 94 and 97. Also compare two guan-marked tretafoil dishes found in the same hoard, illustrated in ibid, pp. 95 and 96.

During the late Tang to Five Dynasties period, Ding replaced Xing wares to become the best quality white-glazed ceramics. It was during this period that, Ding wares started to receive patronage from the court. According to the ceramic scholar Quan Kuishan, the character guan refers to the Taiguanshu under the Guanglusi, which was the Imperial Household responsible for dietary and beverage supply at court, see Quan Kuishan, ‘Tang wudai shiqi dingyao chutan’, Palace Museum Journal, 2008, no. 4, p. 50. As such it is possible that the guan-marked Ding wares were commissioned by the Taiguanshu and used by the ruling household.

Christie's. CLASSICAL CHINESE ART FROM THE SUI TO THE SONG DYNASTIES, 1 June 2016, Convention Hall