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A RARE LARGE CARVED DING ‘LOTUS’ BASIN                                              scrolls are known. The first is in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics,
                                                                                    Osaka, illustrated in Asahi Shimbun, Song Ceramics, Tokyo, 1999, p.
NORTHERN SONG DYNASTY, 11TH-12TH CENTURY                                            67, no. 30. The second is in the Palace Museum Collection, illustrated
                                                                                    in Selection of Ding Ware: the Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological
The basin is finely potted with steep rounded walls rising from a recessed          Excavation, Beijing, 2012, p. 136, no. 52. A basin of similar form and
base to a slightly flared rim. The interior is freely carved with meandering        size but lacking the notches on the exterior are in the collection of
lotus blossoms, and the exterior with six notches forming six very shallow          National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by Tsai Meifen, Decorated
lobes. It is covered with a transparent ivory-white glaze pooling in the            Porcelains of Dingzhou: White Ding Wares from the collection of the National
recesses. The rim is bound in a metal band.                                         Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, p. 97, no. II-54. Two larger basins also
                                                                                    with rounded sides are in the National Palace Museum collection; one is
8 ¿ in. (20.6 cm.), diam., Japanese wood box                                        carved with wave patterns at the base of interior below a band of daylily
                                                                                    scroll and daylily scroll on the exterior, illustrated in ibid., p. 136, no.
HK$5,000,000-7,000,000  US$650,000-910,000                                         II-85; the other one is carved with fish and waterfowls scene on the
                                                                                    interior and lotus scroll on the exterior, illustrated in ibid., p. 137, no.
北宋 定窯劃花蓮紋洗                                                                          II-86. Compare also a small number of Ding basins with foliate rims,
                                                                                    such as a pair of Ding basins, each carved with a single lotus spray at the
PROVENANCE                                                                          base of interior, in the National Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in
Sen Shu Tey, Tokyo                                                                  ibid., p. 132, no. II-81.82; and another example carved with a larger lotus
                                                                                    spray, also in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in ibid., pp. 130-
EXHIBITED                                                                           131, no. II-80.
Sen Shu Tey, Special Exhibition ‘Run Through 10 Years’, Tokyo, 2006,
Catalogue, no. 61                                                                   Lotus is a popular decorative theme on Ding wares, as it has been
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song            traditionally revered for its quality as ‘rising from the mud but is
Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November            unsullied, bathed by clear waves but is not seductive’, written in a
2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013,                     famous poem, Passion for the Lotus by Song scholar-official Zhou Dunyi
Catalogue, no. 9                                                                    (1017-1073). Another symbolic meaning of the lotus is derived from
                                                                                    its phonetic similarity with the phrase ‘incorruptible’. Therefore, vessels
LITERATURE                                                                          decorated with lotus were particularly suitable for the scholar-official class.
Sen Shu Tey, The Collection of Chinese Art, Tokyo, 2006, p. 53, no. 61              Large basins like this were sometimes used in the serving of alcohol. The
Christie’s, The Classical Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures  exact function remains unclear, though scholars from the Palace Museum
from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 42-43, no. 9                 have suggested that basins of this type may well be warming bowls,
                                                                                    containing hot water to heat wine ewers that would have been placed
Ding basins of this form and decoration are relatively rare. A very                 within. This theory is suggested by a number of Song mural paintings and
similar ‘lotus’ basin is in the Tokyo National Museum, published in the             large number of paired ewer and basin in qingbai wares. However, it is
Oriental Ceramics: the World’s Great Collections, vol. 1: Tokyo National            extremely rare to find a paired example in Ding ware. As indicated by a
Museum, Tokyo, 1982, colour plates, no. 9. Two other Ding basins with               Yuan mural painting, basins of this type could also serve as a jiuhai (wine
six-lobed sides but carved on both the interior and exterior with lotus             sea) wine basin, paired with a ladle to serve alcohol in banquets.

The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics 古韻天成 — 臨宇山人珍藏(一)                                74
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