A rare molded 'Ding' 'Buddhist lion' dish, Northern Song-Jin dynasty(960-1234)
Lot 158. A rare molded 'Ding' 'Buddhist lion' dish, Northern Song-Jin dynasty(960-1234). Diameter 8½ in., 21.5 cm. Estimate: 35,000 - 45,000 USD. Lot sold: 47,880 USD. © Sotheby's 2021
finely potted with gently rounded sides rising to an everted rim, the interior incised with a striding Buddhist lion reaching towards a beribboned brocade ball surrounded by dense scrolls, the cavetto decorated with a band of eight repeating sections of leafy scrolls, the rim bound in gilt-metal.
Note: The design of the present dish is quite rare and few similar dishes have been published. See a closely related example excavated in Quyang, Hebei, illustrated in Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China, vol. 3, Beijing, 2008, pl. 170. See a line drawing of a Ding dish with a closely related design of a Buddhist lion in pursuit of a beribboned ball, illustrated in Li Zhiyan, Ding Yao Ceramics from the Beixuan Shuzhai Collection, Hong Kong, 2013, p. 53, fig. 41. Compare also two dishes with a similar motif: one sold in our London rooms, 9th June 1987, lot 138 and another sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 4th April 2017, lot 3203.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 21 September 2021