Lot 3222. A Ding bottle vase, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234), 11 3/4 in. (29.7 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 800,000 - HKD 1,200,000. Price realised HKD 1,000,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2014

The vase is well potted with a pear-shaped body resting on a short straight foot and rising to a tall slender cylindrical neck gently tapering towards the mouth rim. It is covered overall with a clear ivory-white glaze of even tone.

Provenance: Yamanaka & Co. Ltd. (according to label on the base)
Carl Kempe Collection
Sold at Sotheby's London, 14 May 2008, lot 267

Literature: Bo Gyllensvard, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 359.
Thomas Dexel, Fruhe Keramik in China, Braunschweig, 1973, pl. 70b
Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 2002, pl. 562

Note: The current bottle form, characterised by a well rounded pear-shaped body and a sensuous slender neck, was popular with a number of Northern kilns of this period, including Ding, Jun and Yaozhou.

Compare to a similar Ding bottle vase of comparable height (29.8 cm.) with an everted mouth rim, sold at Sotheby's London, 6 July 1971, lot 64, and again at Christie's Tokyo, 17 February 1980, lot 741, and illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 84 (fig. 1). 

fig. 1. A Ding bottle vase, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234). Sold at Christie's Tokyo, 17 February 1980, lot 741. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014