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A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND Northern Song Dynasty (Japanese wood box and brocade bag; Japanese 1972 catalog) image 1
A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND Northern Song Dynasty (Japanese wood box and brocade bag; Japanese 1972 catalog) image 2
A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND Northern Song Dynasty (Japanese wood box and brocade bag; Japanese 1972 catalog) image 3
A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND Northern Song Dynasty (Japanese wood box and brocade bag; Japanese 1972 catalog) image 4
A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND Northern Song Dynasty (Japanese wood box and brocade bag; Japanese 1972 catalog) image 5
A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND Northern Song Dynasty (Japanese wood box and brocade bag; Japanese 1972 catalog) image 6
PROPERTY FROM VARIOUS OWNERS
Lot 120

A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND
Northern Song Dynasty

Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art including the Francine and Bernard Wald Collection of Fine Snuff Bottles, Part I
17 March 2025, 09:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$140,200 inc. premium

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A SUPERB AND RARE DINGYAO 'PERSIMMON'-GLAZED CUPSTAND

Northern Song Dynasty
The alms-bowl-shape receptacle with deeply rounded sides and incurved rim, joined to a wide circular saucer curved up to a lipless rim and supported on a tall foot splayed at the rim, covered overall with a saturated russet-brown glaze showing a slightly variegated dark-brown and iridescent surface, the neatly pared foot rim unglazed revealing the fine white porcelain body.
4 1/16in (10.3cm) diam; 2 3/16in (5.5cm) high
 (Japanese wood box and brocade bag; Japanese 1972 catalog).

Footnotes

北宋 珍罕紫定盞托

Provenance:
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo

Exhibited:
The Fifth Antique Dealer's Fair & Exhibition in Tokyo, 8-12 October 1972

Published:
Exhibition Catalog of Ancient Chinese Ceramics, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 1972, p. 23, no. 40

來源：
東京繭山龍泉堂

展覽：
第五回東美特別展，東京，1972 年 10 月 8-12 日

出版：
中國古陶瓷展觀圖錄，東京繭山龍泉堂，1972 年，頁 23，圖版編號 40

The delicate potting, elegant proportion, coupled with the luxurious 'persimmon'-brown glaze make the present cupstand an exceptional work of art, fully representing the understated yet sophisticated quality of Song ceramics. Handled by eminent Japanese dealer Mayuyama & Co., Ltd. in the 1970s, this cupstand is well-preserved and in excellent condition.

Footed saucers of this type with a ring-shaped receptacle appeared as early as the Six Dynasties. During the Tang dynasty, preparation of tea-drinking required many tools and utensils. Cupstands and tea-related vessels inevitably gained popularity as the banquet grew larger and more elaborate. Documented in the Song dynasty painting Wenhui tu (Literary Gathering) by the Huizong Emperor (A.D. 1082-1135), in the collection of the Palace Museum, Taipei, a young servant holds a set of a white cup and black cupstand in his left hand, with several cups and cupstands of the same style neatly arranged in front of him on a square table. Fig. 1

Scholars have speculated if the black cupstand in Wenhui tu was made of black lacquer, and perhaps the white rims were silver mounts for protecting the edges of the lacquer ware. Compare the Song dynasty black lacquer cupstand of similar silhouette but with lobed middle dish, without silver mount, in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, illustrated by Kwok, The Eternal Feast: Banqueting in Chinese Art from the 10th to 14th Century, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, 2019, pp. 168-169, Cat. 39.

Dingyao cupstands of this form are often glazed in 'persimmon'-brown or black, and several examples exist in museum and private collections today. However, the intensity of the persimmon color and the refined execution of its form makes this lot the best of any example to come to auction. One similar example in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums is illustrated by Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers: Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 102-105, no. 12, where the author explores the origin of russet-glazed Ding ware: "By Song times, white Ding ware had gained appreciation at the imperial court. Wanting to make their wares harmonize with vessels in precious materials used at the court, potters at the Ding kilns began to coat some pieces with dark glazes, in imitation of the brown and black lacquers that were prized at the time." Mowry also illustrates another Dingyao cupstand of this glaze and shape, but with a lobed saucer dish, in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum, op. cit., pp. 105-106, no. 13, describing both the Harvard and Saint Louis examples as "closely follow(in) their metal and lacquer prototypes in form, even allowing the saucer to close the bottom of the receptacle".

Other notable examples of Dingyao 'persimmon'-glazed cupstand include: in the Meiyintang Collection and now on display at the Musee Rietberg, Switzerland, illustrated by Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume I, London, 1994, pp. 202-203, no. 354; a very similar Dingyao 'persimmon'-glazed cupstand and matching tea bowl in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 83.

Caption:
Fig. 1 Detail of Literary Gathering, Huizong (A.D. 1082-1135), Song Dynasty, ink and color on silk, Palace Museum, Taipei

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