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AN EXCEPTIONAL
AND EXTREMELY
RARE CARVED ‘DING’
‘PEONY’ VASE
The understated elegance and sublime simplicity of white Ding Most of the pieces and fragments thus identi ed are, however,
ware evokes ideals of classical beauty to be one of the most bowls and dishes. Ding bottles, vases or jars, in fact any
admired ceramic wares of China to this day. True Ding ware is upright shapes, were extremely rarely produced by the Ding
mostly of good quality and pleasing design, but this vessel is white ware kilns around Baoding city in Hebei province, which
an exceptionally rare and outstanding example of the ware at had specialised in the production of round, open shapes.
its very best: combining exquisite material with ne potting, Open shapes could quickly be thrown on the potter’s wheel
graceful proportions and a freely incised design that appears to and manufactured in large quantities. Closed, upright shapes,
have been sketched from life. Furthermore, while open vessels especially with a swelling shoulder rising from a slender foot
such as bowls and dishes were created in abundance, upright and narrow neck as seen on the present vase, represented
examples of this type represent a maturation of techniques of a much greater challenge, requiring precision in throwing to
which very few examples have survived. make the separately thrown parts t, and diligence in joining to
ensure neat and rm alignment, and were much more likely to
The booming demand for white wares is the product of a fresh collapse or tilt in the kiln.
aesthetic that was brought about by the newly established
Song dynasty and the subsequent changes in the distribution Only a small number of Ding meiping vases are known but all of
of wealth and resources as well as a renewed discovery larger size; a closely related vase, from the Sir Percival David
of the beauty of nature. In a quest to establish an identity Collection and now held in the British Museum, London ( g.1),
that deviated from that of the Tang but aimed at reviving is illustrated in Regina Krahl and Jessica Harrison-Hall, Chinese
a romanticised concept of antiquity based on Han dynasty Ceramics. Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, 2013,
Confucian ideals, the scholar-elite of the Song promoted pl. 8. A further larger meiping of this type, incised with a oral
commercial liberalism which granted much freedom to the design between radiating combed petals at the shoulder and
activities of merchants, brokers and landowners who in turn tall sti leaves at the foot, in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
transformed the capital into a vibrant urban hub. is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
Palace Museum. Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong,
Within this dynamic atmosphere, the Ding kilns of the 1996, pl. 36; a second, even larger, vase, reconstructed from
Northern Song period experienced surges in development and fragments, is published in Ding ci ya ji. Gugong Bowuyuan
popularity. Given the overall excellence of this white ware, it is zhencang ji chutu Dingyao ciqi huicui / Selection of Ding
natural that the court selected it as one of its o cial ceramics. Ware. The Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological
Many Ding vessels were discovered in the tomb of Emperor Excavation, op. cit., 2012, pl. 35. Another meiping, but incised
Taizong’s empress, who died in AD 977 and was later reburied with lotus blooms, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was
in AD 1000. A large number of Ding vessels from the Qing included in the Museum’s exhibition Decorated Porcelains of
court collection still remain in the Palace Museum, Beijing, Dingzhou. White Ding Wares from the Collection of the National
and in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, several of them Palace Museum, 2014, cat no. II-9; and another, the neck
bearing inscriptions by the Qianlong Emperor. Many early Ding missing, carved and incised with peonies, from the Alfred Clark
wares, particularly of the Tang (618-907) and Five Dynasties Collection and included in numerous exhibitions including the
(907-960) periods, but also of the Song dynasty, are inscribed International Exhibition of Chinese Art, The Royal Academy of
with the character guan (‘o cial’) of xin guan (‘new o cial’), Art, London, 1935, cat. no. 1166, was sold in our London rooms,
and the excavations of the Quyang kiln sites in Hebei province 25th March 1975, lot 30.
have brought to light sherds of the Song and Jin (1115-1234)
dynasties inscribed with the characters dong gong (‘Eastern The owing oral design of two peony blooms re ects the
Palace’), and the names of two administrative units within the aesthetic predilection of the Song dynasty which ‘recognized
court. See the catalogue to the exhibition Ding ci ya ji. Gugong the need to balance ornateness with simplicity’ (see Marshall
Bowuyuan zhencang ji chutu Dingyao ciqi huicui / Selection of P.S. Wu, ‘Black-glazed Jian Ware and Tea Drinking in the
Ding Ware. The Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological Song Dynasty’, Orientations, vol. 29, no. 4, 1998, p. 31). This
Excavation, Beijing, 2012, cat. nos 3, 6-9, 28. vase encapsulates the elegant style of white stoneware from
the Ding kiln, incorporating graceful lines and nely incised
decoration that raised traditional techniques to new standards.
112 SOTHEBY’S
