Page 220 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE MASSACHUSETTS COLLECTION
1726
A FINE AND RARE CARVED DING ‘CHILONG’ DISH
NORTHERN SONG-JIN DYNASTY, 11TH-12TH CENTURY
The shallow, rounded sides rise to a fat, everted rim with unglazed edge mounted in copper. The interior
is fuently carved with a coiled horned chilong below a band of classic scroll in the well and a band of key
fret on the rim. The dish is covered overall with a glaze of creamy ivory color that pools slightly to a darker
shade in the recesses and above the foot, and continues over the fat base.
6√ in. (17.3 cm.) diam.
$80,000-120,000

PROVENANCE
Frank Caro, New York, 15 July 1965.
Created at the Ding kilns in Hebei province, this exquisite dish represents the type of ceramic ware most
preferred at the Imperial Court in the late eleventh and early twelfth century.
A Ding dish of similar shape, with key fret carved on the everted rim and carved in the center with a
chilong, is illustrated in Decorated Porcelains of Dingzhou: White Ding wares from the collection of the
National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, p. 100, pl. II-56, and another with plain, everted rim, is illustrated
pp. 98-99, pl. II-55. The horned chilong that decorates the center of this dish is similar to that seen in a
line drawing illustrated by J. Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, London, 1979, fg. 13 (c), which is from a dish
in the British Museum.
See, also, the Ding washer from the Linyushanren Collection, and formerly in the collection of Mr.
and Mrs. Eugene Bernat, sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2018, lot 505, which is carved with a
similarly rendered coiled chilong, but shown front facing. (Fig. 1)
北宋/金 定窯刻花螭龍折沿盤

Fig. 1 Carved Ding ‘chilong’ brush washer, Northern Song dynasty, 11th-
12th century. Sold Christie’s New York, 22 March 2018, lot 505.

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