Lot 106. An exquisite and rare Dingyao white-glazed foliate-rim dish, Five Dynasties-Song Dynasty (907-1279); 15.6cm diam. (2). Sold for HK$829,500 (Est: $450 000 HKD - $550 000 HKD) © Bonhams 2001-2023

Finely potted as a dish of shallow rounded form, the undulating rim rising from a ring foot and cut into four lobed petals, each defined by a pointed tip at the centre, covered all over in an even ivory glaze with characteristic teardrops on the underside, the glaze falling short of the foot revealing the fine white clay body, fitted box. 

Provenance: The Muwen Tang Collection of Simon Kwan, Hong Kong
Sotheby's London, 12 November 2003, lot 1
Eskenazi Ltd., London
The Ten-Views Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, coll. no. EK192.

Exhibited: Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1994, cat. no. 8

Note: The combination of refined white body, sophisticated thin potting and ivory tinged glaze forming the tear-like markings on the outside of this exquisite dish strongly indicates its origin at the highly respected Ding kilns in Hebei, from Tang throughout Song dynasty.

The form of foliate rim dish is inspired by early gold and silver wares of Tang dynasty, but four-pointed dishes of this crisply cut form are very rare. A similar dish is illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 11, Tokyo: Shogakkan, 1976, pls. 90-91; another in Bo Gyllensvard, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 341. A further example dated Tang or Five Dynasties, is included by Regina Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 3(II), London, 2006, cat. no. 1413. A dish of the same shape but bearing a painted mark can also be found in the collection of Victoria & Albert Museum, see R. Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, London, 2004, p. 42, nos. 33 and 33a.

Bonhams. SUBTLE BEAUTY THE AESTHETICS OF SONG DYNASTY, 29 November 2023, Hong Kong, Admiralty