Lot 73. A rare 'Ding' censer and cover, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127); 15 cm, 6 in. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000 GBP. Courtesy Sotheby's 2018.
the rounded body supported on a domed pedestal foot carved with four quatrefoil cut out panels, the cover carved with an open work design of diaper leading up to a flower head, all covered in an ivory coloured glaze, deepening to an olive tone where it pools.
Provenance: Collection of Frederick M. Mayer.
Christie's London, 24th/25th June 1974, lot 34.
Collection of Walter Hochstadter.
Christie's New York, 18th/19th March 2009, lot 510.
J.J. Lally & Co, Oriental Art, March 2010.
Exhibited: J. J. Lally & Co, Oriental Art, Chinese Ceramics in Black and White, New York, 2010, cat. no. 17.
Note: A related censer, excavated at Taiyuan city, Shanxi province, and now in the Shangxi Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji/The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 7, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 215. Compare another censer of this type, the cover with similar cutouts but on a different foot, published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. I, London, pl. 345.
Similarly pierced censers covered in a qingbai glaze are also known to have been produced; see one included in Hsien-Ch'I Tseng and Robert Paul Dart, The Charles B. Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, vol. II, Boston, 1972, pl. 64.
Censer with openwork base and qingbai glaze, Southern Song dynasty, 12th century. Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt—Charles Bain Hoyt Collection, 50.2060a-b © 2018 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 16 May 2018, 10:30 AM