A superb molded 'Ding' white-glazed 'geese' bowl, Northern Song / Jin dynasty

Collection of Sakamoto Gorō (1923-2016).

Sotheby's New York, 17th March 2015, lot 9.

This intricately rendered scene of geese flying within a floral ground is notable for the depth and clarity of the molded design. Ding ware tended to imitate other precious materials such as lacquer, gold and silver, quantities of which were stored in palace treasuries. From the late Northern Song period (early twelfth century), Ding-ware craftsmen moved away from hand-carved decoration to using mushroom-shape molds which were similar to those used for casting gold and silver vessels. The clay was pressed onto the relief-decorated mold before the edges were trimmed down to ensure the wares retained the forms as well as the thinness and lightness of precious materials. This new technique allowed for the manufacture of a large number of vessels, thereby satisfying the needs of the market.

Bird and flower designs of this type also reveal the influence of textiles on molded Ding ware, which bears a resemblance to rich brocaded textiles of the period. A related bowl impressed with geese among clouds and melon vines, but with a plain circular rim is preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum's exhibition White Ding Wares from the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, cat. no. II-150, together with another depicting Mandarin ducks and fish, cat. no. II-151. Bowls of related form, decorated with various species of birds among flowers, include a foliate example impressed with phoenix, lotus and fish, in the Baur collection, published in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. 1, Geneva, 1968, pl. A18; and two illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, with phoenix and flowers from the Museum of Eastern Art, Oxford, pl. 85a, and with ducks, lotus and fish, pl. 89a, from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Shards of a bowl decorated with phoenix and peonies, excavated from the Ding kiln site in Quyang County, Hebei province, was included in the exhibition Ding Ware. The World of White Elegance – Recent Archaeological Findings, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2013, cat. no. 44.

For a Ding bowl mold, incised with phoenix and flowers, the reverse incised with an inscription dating it to 1184, from the collection of Sir Percival David and now in the British Museum, London, see Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ting and Allied Wares, London, 1980, pl. 46.