Page 72 - Nov 2019 Hong Kong SOtheby's Chinese Art

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A VERY RARE DINGYAO SGRAFFIATO The Ding kilns were the predominant producers the white ground; a fragmentary piece in the
‘PEONY’ VASE of superior white wares in the Song dynasty Ding county museum and a sherd, probably
SONG DYNASTY (960-1279), but – like most important Song kiln from the kilns sites, are illustrated in Chūgoku
centres – also developed various other types of tōji zenshū [Complete series on Chinese
potted with an ovoid body rising from a short ware. Among the rarest and most sophisticated ceramics], Kyoto, 1981-6, vol. 9: Tei yō [Ding
splayed foot to a wide straight neck and are brown-and-white sgraffiato wares, such yao], pls 123 and 141.
everted rim, the body carved through the black as the present piece. While stylistically closely A pillow with such sgraffiato decoration and
glaze with two large peony blooms borne on reminiscent of sgraffiato Cizhou wares, which
undulating leafy stems, all reserved on white were made not far away, in southern Hebei, an ink inscription with a Jin dynasty (1115-
1234) date on the base, equivalent to 1143, is
ground between overlapping petals and a frieze they are much more refined in material and illustrated in Zhongguo gu ciyao daxi. Zhongguo
of alternating colour blocks encircling the feet workmanship, being thinly potted from near- Dingyao/Series of China’s Ancient Porcelain Kiln
and neck respectively white clay.
16.5 cm, 6½ in. Sites: Ding Kiln of China, Beijing, 2012, p. 351,
One of the most important, frequently exhibited figs 11 and 12; another dated in accordance with
HK$ 1,200,000-1,500,000 and published vessels of this type is the meiping 1168 is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published
US$ 153,000-192,000 from the collections of Mathias Komor, Mr and in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
Mrs Eugene Bernat, The British Rail Pension Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty,
宋 定窰白地剔黑彩牡丹紋瓶 Fund and the Meiyintang collections, now Hong Kong, 1996, vol. 1, pl. 89.
on display in the Rietberg Museum, Zurich. Two head-rests of this paler sgraffiato type are
Although rather finer in quality, it shares also in the Meiyintang collection, see Krahl,
with the present jar its colouration and the op.cit., nos 1538 and 1539; and a ‘truncated
combination of sgraffiato and painted designs: meiping’ in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics,
a dark brown peony scroll with carved and Osaka, with a similar lappet border around
combed details around the main part of the the base, was included in the exhibition Haku
body, and vertical painted brown and white to koku no kyōen/Charm of Black and White
stripes alternating around the neck; see Regina Ware: Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, Osaka
Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Municipal Museum of Art, 2002, p. 144, no. 11.
Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 3, no. 1440.
A related bottle of ‘truncated meiping’ form The shape of this vase is also highly unusual
in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in Ding ware and more closely reminiscent of
also with a peony scroll and striped neck, is some Cizhou vessels, such as two jars with
illustrated in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s brown spots on a white-slipped surface, but
Great Collections, Tokyo, New York, and San with a more distinctively shaped rim, one in the
Francisco, 1980–82, vol. 9, col. pl. 11. Upright Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the other
vessels of this type, or any Ding sgraffiato in a private Japanese collection, both illustrated
vessels using this dark brown glaze, are by Yutaka Mino in the exhibition catalogue
otherwise extremely rare. Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven
Centuries in Northern China. Tz’u-chou Type
The Ding kilns mainly produced head-rests in Wares, 960 - 1600 AD, Indianapolis Museum of
this sgraffiato technique, but with a much paler Art, Indianapolis, 1980, p. 112, figs 115 and 116.
brown glaze that provides a lesser contrast to

70 SOTHEBY ’S CHINESE ART