A rare and large carved 'Ding' white-glazed 'fish' basin, Northern Song dynasty | 北宋 定窰白釉刻魚紋大盌

Collection of Dr. Cornelius Osgood (1905-1985).

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Cornelius Osgood博士 (1905-1985) 收藏

Ding wares adorned with the auspicious motif of gracefully swimming fish found popularity during the Northern Song dynasty. Fish hold significant symbolism, embodying themes of marriage, prosperity, and abundant offspring. Additionally, they are considered emblems of harmony and conjugal bliss. Depiction of a fish swimming in water signifies the wish for a couple to experience a harmonious union akin to the natural symbiosis of fish and water, often referred to as yushui hexie.

Basins of large dimensions, such as the present example, are very rare. Similar basins are known in museum collections; compare one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 故瓷014203N000000000); another example now in the British Museum, London, from the Sir Percival David Collection, published in Mary Tregear, Song Ceramics, London, 1982, col. pl. 29. 

Only a few pieces similar in size and design to the present basin have been sold at auction; one carved with larger fish and lotus petals on the exterior, in our Hong Kong rooms, 31st October 1995, lot 343, again in our Hong Kong rooms, 31st March 2005, lot 32, and illustrated in Sotheby's: Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 103; another sold in our London rooms, 14th May 2008, lot 297.

Dr. Cornelius Osgood (1905-1985) was a professor of anthropology at Yale University, New Haven, and a leading scholar of the cultures of the Arctic and East Asia. Joining the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale in 1930, Osgood became the curator of its anthropology department in 1934 and was appointed the Peabody's associate director in 1966. He built up a strong collection of Chinese porcelain, with many works acquired from Frank Caro.