Lot 8037. A Dingyao slip-decorated square dish, Northern Song dynasty; 11 cm. Lot Sold 524,800 HKD (Estimate 80,000 - 160,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2026
 

Provenance: Collection of Dr Carl Kempe (1884–1967).
Sotheby’s London, 14th May 2008, lot 301.
Sotheby's. Possessing the Past, Hong Kong, 30 October 2026
 

Literature: Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 393.
 

Note: The square shape of the present dish is extremely rare among Ding wares but appears to have been developed by the Ding kilns, perhaps following wooden or metal models. A fragment of a very similar dish but with a butterfly design in slip relief in the centre, has been excavated at the Ding kiln site in Quyang county in a late Tang/Five Dynasties context, and is illustrated in Ding ci ya ji. Gugong Bowuyuan zhencang ji chutu Dingyao ciqi huicui (Selection of Ding Ware. The Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological Excavation), Beijing, 2012, pl. 20; and one complete square Ding dish, again with butterfly design, excavated at Yanjialing, Changsha, Hunan, and attributed to the Five Dynasties period, is published in Zhang Bai, op. cit., vol. 13, pl. 196 top. Compare also a pair of white dishes with more complex moulded design discovered in a Liao tomb at Sangshu, Shuangliao county, Jilin, in Zhang Bai ed., Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji (Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China), Beijing, 2008, vol. 2, pl. 168.