White glazed flower-engraved bowl, Height 5.5cm, caliber 16.8cm, foot diameter 9.4 cm

Administered by Dingzhou in the Tang Dynasty, Ding kiln is named after its ancient location (now located in Quyang county, Hebei province). Ding kiln is one of the five most famous kilns in the Song Dynasty, the other four being Ru kiln (named after its ancient location), Guan kiln (exact location unidentified), Ge kiln (exact location unidentified) and Jun kiln (named after its ancient location).

Originating from the Tang Dynasty, Ding kiln reached its peak during the Northern Song Dynasty and stopped production in the Yuan Dynasty. From the outset, Ding kiln was merely a civilian kiln and only began to supply imperial porcelains in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

Glaze of Ding Porcelain

Ding kiln is famous for its white porcelains, but it also fired black glazed, purple glazed, and green glazed porcelains, which are named in documents as “black Ding (black porcelains of Ding kiln)”, “purple Ding (named in the same way as black Ding)” and “green Ding (the same)”. The white body of white porcelain is quite exquisite and the quality of the body is thin and bright; the glaze is white and moist, with tear stains on its surface, which is caused by the flowing glaze. “White Ding” is also called “pink Ding” due to slightly pink glazed body.

White glazed flower-engraved bowl, Height 5.5cm, caliber 16.8cm, foot diameter 9.4 cm

White Ding Porcelain

The white Ding ware of the Northern Song Dynasty is characterized as follows:

1. Tear stains

“Tear stains” refers to the flowing glaze on the surface of the porcelain. The glaze of Ding porcelain often flowed in a strip shape, which looks like tear stains. The tear stains phenomenon can only be found in Ding kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty while there are no such features from the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties.