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.