Lot 266. A rare white stoneware figure of a seated Buddha, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234), 19cm, 7 1/2 in. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 GBP. Lot sold 58,100 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's.

modelled seated in dhyanasana on a lotus pedestal base, the hands held in dhyanamudra and wearing a loose-fitting robe falling in deep folds around his arms and lower body, his face with gentle smile framed by long pendulous ear-lobes and his hair tied in tight knots around the usnisa, covered overall in a white slip and a clear ivory glaze.

Exhibited: Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 541.

Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 104, 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. 407.

The World's Great Collections. Oriental Ceramics, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 122.

Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 2002, pl. 609.

Note: Figurative 'Ding' ware is very rare, and the present piece is a magnificent example of fine craftsmanship, which is seen in the beautifully modelled figure of the Buddha and the transparent ivory glaze. No other 'Ding' figure of this type appears to be published, although a figure of a bodhisattva in a shrine is illustrated by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. One, London, 1994, pl. 370. Figures from the Northern Song and Jin dynasties are known, for example see several published in Chugoku toji zenshu, vol. 9, Kyoto, 1981, pls. 61-6 and 94-7.

Sotheby's. London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork: Early Chinese Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008