the cylindrical body with flat base supported on three short cabriole legs, finely carved around the exterior with three raised bands between two bands at the top and a single band below, covered overall with a clear ivory-white glaze, the reduced rim metal bound.

Exhibited: Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 111, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums

Literature: Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 447.

The World's Great Collections. Oriental Ceramics, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 119.

Mary Tregear, Song Ceramics, London, 1982, pl. 2.

Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 2002, pl. 649.

Note: Representing the finest of white wares produced during the Song dynasty, 'Ding' ceramics are characterised by the combination of an elegance of style and a search for perfection. This rare, simple shape seems to derive either from an archaic bronze ritual vessel, the lian, or from the lacquer version. A 'Ding' censer of this form, from the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Chugoku toji zenshu, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 84; one from the Charles B. Hoyt collection is published in The Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, vol. 2, Boston, 1972, pl. 29; another was sold in these rooms, 11th December 1984, lot 169; and a fourth example from the Schoenlight collection was sold in these rooms, 13th December 1955, lot 60.

For an archaic bronze example of a lian see one in the Museum Fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, published in Osvald Siren, A History of Early Chinese Art. The Han Period, London, 1930, pl. 55.