Lot 104. A large Dingyao carved 'mallow' bowl, Northern Song Dynasty  (960–1126); 22.8cm diam. Estimate HK$200,000 - 400,000. Sold for HK$ 425,000 (€40,201). Photo: Bonhams.

Elegantly potted in the shape of a mallow bloom, the interior carved with overlapping petals resembling a large mallow flower head, covered overall in a creamy ivory-white tone, applied with a lobed metal rim. 

Provenance : Sotheby's London, 12 May 2010, lot 27.

Note: Considered as the earliest and finest porcelain produced during its time, Ding ware was the first to enter the Imperial palace for official use. A similar but much smaller dish is in the Kwan collection and illustrated in Song Ceramics from the Kwan Collection, Hong Kong, 1994, pp.78-79, no.21. Compare also with a Dingyao dish with a very similarly carved mallow-flower head in the interior, in the Percival David Foundation (No.166), illustrated by Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, London, 1970, pl.61.k; and a Dingyao dish shaped as a camellia, dated Northern Song, is illustrated by Anthony du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p.88, no.2.

The mallow shape was probably inspired from lacquer wares of the period. For instance a mallow-shaped red and black lacquer dish and a lobed lacquer bowl, dated to the Northern Song dynasty, was included in the O.C.S. Hong Kong, exhibition, 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, 1993, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no.11 and 12.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. Hong Kong, Admiralty, 26 May 2014 14:00 HKT