Page 259 - Christie's, NYC Important Chinese Works Of Art Sept. 22-23, 2022

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION
938
A VERY RARE MOLDED DING-TYPE GOLDEN-BROWN-GLAZED Much of the popularity of fish as a decorative theme, especially in later
BOWL dynasties, hinges on the fact that the word for fish, yu, is a homophone
LIAO DYNASTY (AD 907-1125) for the word for abundance or surplus - thus two fish represent doubled
The bowl has a widely flared body crisply molded on the interior with a lotus abundance and a gold fish an abundance of gold. The depiction of fish in
water, as on the current bowl, has also come to provide a rebus or visual
plant and arrowhead in the center below two carp swimming amidst further pun for yushui hexie, 'may you be as harmonious as fish and water'. Such
lotus plants and water weeds on the sides, and is covered overall with a glaze symbolism is particularly appropriate in the context of marriage, and
of golden-brown color that stops at the unglazed rim exposing the fine white decoration including two fish additionally symbolizes both fertility and
body and continues over the shallow foot ring to cover the base. conjugal happiness in the same context. On the current bowl the fish are
6¿ in. (15.6 cm.) diam., cloth box shown with lotus. One word for lotus in Chinese is he, which sounds the
same as the word for harmony and thus reinforces that theme. Another
$60,000-80,000 word for lotus is lian, which suggests the word for 'successive', which is
appropriate in the context of both progeny and harmony.
PROVENANCE:
Dr. Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Ekolsund, Sweden, no. 333. 顯赫私人珍藏
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 2010, no. 4479.
遼 定窯系褐釉模印雙鯉紋盌
EXHIBITED: 來源:
Ulricehamn, Chinese Ceramic Treasures, A Selection from Ulricehamn East
Asian Museum, including the Carl Kempe Collection, 2002. 卡爾·坎普 (1884-1967) 珍藏, 瑞典Ekolsund, 編號333
New York, J. J. Lally & Co., Chinese Ceramics in Black and White, 20 March-10 藍理捷, 紐約, 2010年, 編號4479
April 2010. 出版:
俞博, 《Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection》, 斯德哥爾摩, 1964
LITERATURE: 年, 頁134, 編號421
B. Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, J. Wirgin, ‘Sung Ceramic Designs’《B.M.F.E.A》, 編號42, 斯德哥爾摩,
,

1964, p. 134, no. 421. 1970年, 圖版90-a
J. Wirgin, "Sung Ceramic Designs,” B.M.F.E.A., no. 42, Stockholm, 1970, pl. 《Chinese Ceramic Treasures, A Selection from the Ulricehamn East
90-a. Asian Museum, including the Carl Kempe Collection》, 烏爾裡瑟港, 2002年,
Chinese Ceramic Treasures, A Selection from the Ulricehamn East Asian 圖版 623
Museum, including the Carl Kempe Collection, Ulricehamn, 2002, pl. 623. 藍理捷, 《Chinese Ceramics in Black and White》, 紐約, 2010年, 圖版編號23
J. J. Lally & Co., Chinese Ceramics in Black and White, New York, 2010, cat. no.
23.
This bowl is crisply molded with a pair of fish swimming amongst lotus and
waterweed in a beautifully balanced design, and belongs to a rare group
of Ding-type wares covered in a brown glaze. A comparable Liao-dynasty
brown-glazed bowl with a related design of two fish swimming in a lotus
pond, also with an exposed white porcelain rim, from the Qingzhou city
site in Balin-youqui, and now in the Balinyouqi Museum, is illustrated in
Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China – 4 – Inner Mongolia,
Beijing, 2008, no. 110. Another Liao-dynasty brown-glazed bowl with molded
floral panels from Xiaokengzi village, Aohanqi, and now in the Aohanqi
Museum, is illustrated in the same publication, no. 109, where it is identified
as Ding ware. A further dark-brown glazed bowl identified as Ding ware
and decorated with panels of ducks and flowers, Jin dynasty, from the
Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection, is illustrated by R. Mowry inHare’s Fur,
Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Chinese Brown and Black-Glazed
Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, p. 117, no. 19.When the current
bowl was published by Jan Wirgin in 1970 in “Sung Ceramic Designs,”
B.M.F.E.A.,Bulletin no. 42, Stockholm, it was shown with other Ding ware
bowls with fish designs, pl. 90-a.
Fish have many auspicious associations in Chinese culture. The early Daoist
philosopher Zhuangzi ( 369-298 BC) consistently used fish to exemplify
creatures who achieve happiness by being in tune with their environment.
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