Lot 670. A rare 'Ding' slip-decorated 'lotus' pillow, Song dynasty. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000 HKD. Lot sold 275,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

of waisted rectangular form, painted in pale russet-brown on an ivory-white ground, each face of the pillow depicting luxuriant floral blooms borne on curling stems issuing foliate tendrils and large lotus pads with furled edges, all beneath a transparent glaze; 28 cm, 11 in.

Notes: Notable for its freely carved design of curling lotus flowers, this pillow is a rare example of Ding-type ware with sgraffiato decoration. This laborious technique required the application of a layer of brown slip to the white body, which is then carved and incised to form the pattern and reveal the white body beneath, hence creating a particularly vivid and attractive contrast. Qin Dashu in ‘A Study of the Relationship between Cizhou and Ding Wares’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 65, 2000-2001, pp. 10 and 11, notes that the light brown tones of the coloured slip seen on Ding-type wares with sgraffiato designs, such as this pillow, was due to a shortage of ore with high iron content near the Ding kilns.

Three pillows carved with this technique, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, have been published: one, decorated with a lotus scroll on the top and inscribed with a cyclical date corresponding to 1168, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 89; and two, both incised with a leafy scroll, are included in Selection of Ding Ware. The Palace Museum Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Beijing, 2012, pls. 100 and 101. See also a pillow of this type, excavated at Dingzhou, Hebei province, illustrated in Mu Qing, Ding ci yishu [The art of Ding porcelain], Shijiangzhuang, 2002, pl. 200; one in the National Museum of China, Beijing, included in the exhibition Ding Kiln of China, Beijing Art Museum, Beijing, 2012, pl. 11; another, in the Tianjin Museum, illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Beijing, 1993, pl. 29; and a further pillow, from the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 3 (II), London, 2006, pl. 1538.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, Hong Kong | 02 Jun 2016