Lot 503. A fine molded 'Ding' dish, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279); diameter 8 1/2 in., 21.6 cm. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Lot sold 158,500 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the center of the shallow, flat-bottomed dish finely molded with a design of two spotted deer with long antlers gamboling amid luscious fruiting and flowering sprays, with scrolling lotus and other aquatic plants on a dotted ground molded on the gently rounded well, the everted rim plain and bound with a metal band, all under a creamy ivory glaze.

Provenance: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bernat, 149.48.
Sotheby's New York, 7th November 1980, lot 95.
Property of a Florida Gentleman.
Sotheby's New York, 20th March 2002, lot 85.

Exhibited: Early Chinese Ceramics of the Sung Dynasty, The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire, 11th April - 31st May 1959, no. 17.
On loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Sotheby's. Harmony of Form, Serenity of Color: A Private Collection of 'Song' Ceramics, New York, 23 march 2011