A Song or Jin Dynasty Moulded Ding Ware Bowl

A Moulded Phoenix and Lotus Ding Ware Bowl, Ding Kilns, Hebei Province, Song or Jin c.1050–1234. From Collection of Nicholas de la Mare Thompson (1928-2010). This Dingyao (Ding ware) bowl is crisply moulded and covered with a thin rich creamy glaze. Please note that the colour is different from one photograph to another, we photographed it in different lighting conditions, in a normal room setting the colour is an attractive of yellow cream. The cavetto is moulded with three phoenix, fenghuang, flying out of a lotus pond including other aquatic plants, the well has a flowering lotus emerging from the water.The lotus is one of the most important symbols in the Chinese art. This Buddhist emblem is a symbol of purity, as the perfect flower grows out of muddy ponds without a stain. The words for lotus in Chinese has the same meaning as to bind, connect (in marriage). It is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism and is the flower used to represent summer.
This Ding ware bowl would have been fired on the rim, as it is the only unglazed part of the dish that has been wiped clean of glaze. The rim has a metal band to protect it as well as to hide the unglazed rough edge. The back is unevenly glazed with chatter marks showing. Ding wares come from a region of northern China formerly known as Dingzhou (Ding prefecture); the white porcelains made there have been prized since the Song dynasty (960–1279). Archaeologists have found the main Ding kiln complex on the border of present-day Quyang in Hebei province.

See below for more photographs and references.

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