A rare ding-type brown-glazed cupstand

Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty
The thinly-potted cup with deep rounded sides resting on a thin shallow dish, and supported on a tall spreading foot, covered inside and out in a rich chocolate-brown glaze thinning on the underside and rim areas to dark-green and black, Japanese wood box. 11.5cm (4 1/2in) diam. (2).

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Provenance: a European private collection
Christie's New York, 18 March 2016, lot 1525

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Cupstands of this type with some variations appear to have been produced during the Song dynasty in various media, such as ceramic, lacquer and even silver. The present example appears to have been directly inspired by prototypes glazed in a rich caramel-brown glaze and fired at the Northern Ding kilns in Hebei Province during the Northern Song dynasty. See a similar Dingyao brown-glazed cupstand, Northern Song dynasty, illustrated by R.D.Mowry, Hare's Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers. Chinese Brown- and Black-Glazed Ceramics, 400-1400, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1996, pp.103, no.12; another Dingyao example, Song dynasty, is illustrated by J.Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, pl.83. Finally, a Dingyao brown-glazed cupstand, Northern Song dynasty, displaying similar dark blue splashes as the present lot is illustrated by B.Gyllensvard, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, p.134, no.420.