A superbly carved Dingyao 'lotus' bowl, Northern Song dynasty | 北宋 定窰劃蓮紋深腹盌

Collection of the Chang Foundation, Taipei.

Sotheby's London, 9th November 2005, lot 213.

鴻禧美術館收藏，台北

倫敦蘇富比2005年11月9日，編號213

The present bowl, incised with a classic flowing lotus scroll design, displays the characteristics attributed to the finest Ding vessels and the aesthetic tastes of the Northern Song period. Rising clean out of muddy waters, the lotus was associated with the scholar-official class during the Song dynasty. It is symbolic of purity, integrity and the Confucian notion of virtue. 

Celebrated for their thin potting, their refined near-white bodies which did not require an application of slip and an ivory-coloured glaze which tends to run down in somewhat darker ‘tears’, Ding wares were ranked among the ‘five great wares’ of the Song, a term coined by collectors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The high quality of this bowl is evident in its feather-light body, which has been expertly and evenly glazed. Ding designs generally display a high level of naturalness and fluidity. Still, the maker of this bowl appears to have been particularly skilled at spontaneously rendering his lines, creating a decoration that is precise yet exceptionally free in its execution.

A Dingyao bowl of this unusual deep rounded form, also of similar size and design, from the Tokyo National Museum, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics: The World’s Great Collections, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 9. A slightly larger example from the Eumorfopoulos Collection is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession no. C.939-1935. Another related bowl of similar size was sold in our London rooms, 15th June 1982, lot 43; and a further example from the Linyushanren Collection was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 2nd December 2015, lot 2815. Compare also an example of this form and comparable size but lacking the characteristic lobes in the collection of Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Decorated Porcelains of Dingzhou: White Ding Wares from the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2014, cat. no. II-54.

Two similar hexalobed Ding vessels, but carved on both the interior and exterior with lotus scrolls, are in the collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, illustrated in Asahi Shimbun, Song Ceramics, Tokyo, 1999, cat. no. 30, and in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in Selection of Ding Ware: the Palace Museum’s Collection and Archaeological Excavation, Beijing, 2012, no. 52.

此盌妙劃蓮花，紋飾經典流麗，盡顯定瓷雅韻，展現北宋審美意趣。有宋一朝，文人進士尤好蓮，崇其質性純潔、出淤泥而不染，象徵品行正直之儒家美德。 

此盌胎體精緻輕盈，因其坯泥均淨雪白，不須加施護胎土，色呈象牙白，聚處見定窰特有之淚痕，尤為可愛，無怪定窰獲明清藏家列入「五大名窰」之中。此盌之胎，輕白如羽，釉色均匀，技巧高明。舉凡定窰，往往自然天成，雖靜猶動。此盌劃花尤為流麗，精巧自如，誠當中佳例。

可比較一深腹盌例，尺寸、紋樣相近，藏東京國立博物館，錄入《東洋陶磁大觀》，卷1，東京，1982年，頁9。一例稍大，為尤莫弗普勒斯舊蓄，現藏維多利亞和阿爾伯特博物館，倫敦，編號C.939-1935。一例相仿，售於倫敦蘇富比，1982年6月15日，編號43；另有一例，為臨宇山人舊藏，售於香港佳士得，2015年12月2日，編號2815 。尚有一盌，大小相似，盌外卻無瓣紋，藏台北故宮博物院，錄於 《定州花瓷：院藏定窰系白瓷特展》，台北，2014年，編號Ⅱ-54。

另可參考兩例定瓷，同作六瓣花式，但內外均飾蓮紋，其一現藏大阪市立東洋陶磁美術館，錄於《宋磁》，東京，1999年，編號30，其二藏北京故宮博物院，錄於《定瓷雅集：故宮博物院珍藏及出土定窰瓷器薈萃》，北京，2012年，編號52。