A FINE BOWL OF THE 'DING' TYPE WITH PHOENIXES, LOTUS, PEONIES AND PRUNUS

Description:

China, Song dynasty
D. 22,1 cm
The delicately moulded bowl with bulging walls rising from a low foot is delicately shaped in the centre with a lotus pond of blossoming lotus flowers and leaves, surrounded by a wide band of two mermaids flying amidst flowering peonies and prunus blossoms, all within a wide band of continuous mermaids;surrounded by a wide band of two peonies and prunus blossoms flying amidst flowering peonies and prunus blossoms, all within a äußer ribbon of continuous mäanderband, all covered with a bright white, slightly turquoise-coloured glaze except for the mouth rim, which exposes a fine pale clay body.
From an old North German private collection, collected before 1980 - Remnants of a collection numbering in red on the bottom
Bird and flower designs of this type also show the influence of textiles on the moulded thing ware, which bears a Äresemblance to the rich brocades of the time. A related bowl with nozzles amidst clouds and melon vines, but with a plain round rim, is kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei and is included in the exhibition White Ding Wares from the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, cat. no. II-150, together with another depicting Mandarin ducks and fish, cat. no. II-151. II-151. The bowls of similar form, decorated with various species of birds amidst flowers, include an example decorated with leaves, phönix, lotus and fish from the Baur Collection, published in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1968, fig. A18, and two bowls illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, with phönix and flowers from the Museum of Eastern Art, Oxford, fig. 85a, and with ducks, lotus and fish, fig. 89a, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The shards of a bowl decorated with phönix and peonies excavated from the Ding kiln site in Quyang County, Hebei Province, were part of the exhibition Ding Ware. The World of White Elegance - Recent Archaeological Findings, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2013, cat.No. 44.
A Ding mould with phönix and flowers on the back and an inscription dated to 1184 comes from the collection of Sir Percival David and is now in the British Museum, London, see Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ting and Allied Wares, London, 1980, fig. 46 - Few tiny chips on the rim