An extremely rare 'Ding' lamp, Northern Song-Jin dynasty

20 juillet 2017

An extremely rare 'Ding' lamp, Northern Song-Jin dynasty

Lot 274. An extremely rare 'Ding' lamp, Northern Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234), 16cm., 6 1/4 in. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 GBP. Lot sold 120,500 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's.

the deep waisted body carved in low relief around the exterior with over-lapping stiff lotus-leaves and a peony scroll at the broad everted rim, all supported on a high domed pedestal foot applied with a freely modelled ferocious dragon, the scaly beast coiled around the foot with its head meeting its tail on a ground of incised waves, and with cloud motif at the foot, covered overall in a clear ivory glaze.

Exhibited: Exhibition of Chinese Art, Palazzo Ducale, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 537.

Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 108, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.

Literature: Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 417.

Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, pl. 58a.

The World's Great Collections. Oriental Ceramics, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 121.

Ulrichamn, 2002, cat. no. 619

Note: 'Ding' lamps of this form are rare, and the highly imaginative combination of a coiling dragon below deeply carved overlapping petals is an exceptional example of the virtuosity and skill of the 'Ding' potters. A lamp of closely related decoration and form, but without the everted rim, was sold at Christie's London, 17th June 2003, lot 13.

Lamps of this basic form are well-known from other kilns; for example compare two 'Yaozhou' vessels of related shape, one with similarly-carved overlapping stiff lotus petals and crouching altar figures at the stem, from the Sedgwick collection, sold in these rooms, 2nd July 1968, lot 98, and now in the Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, included in Ausgewahlte Werke Ostasiatischer Kunst, Berlin 1970, cat. no. 59; the other with a regular pattern of openwork incisions, illustrated in Lefebvre d'Argence, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, Berkeley, 1967, pl. XXXB. See also a 'Yue' lamp of this form with incised petal decoration illustrated in Warren E. Cox, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain, vol. 1, New York, 1946, pl. 269.

Incense burner, Northern Song Dynasty, 11th century. Clay with gray-green celadon glaze, Yaozhou ware. Height x diameter: 19.4 x 18.6 cm (mouth); diameter: 11.2 cm (standing ring), Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, ID No. 1968-14 © Photo: Museum of Asian Art at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage. Photographer: Jürgen Liepe

Sotheby's. London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork: Early Chinese Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008