Purple Ding Porcelain

Purple Ding are caramel and brown porcelains. Cao Zhao, the Ming Dynasty writer of Chinese Connoisseurship: The Ko Ku Yao Lun, says in his book that “the purple Ding is named after the purple color, and the black Ding is as black as black paint. Both bodies are white, and their value is higher than white Ding”. The hue of Ding porcelain from the Northern Song Dynasty differs. Most of the unearthed specimens are light yellow brown, and there is also dark reddish brown, dark purple brown, black brown and other accidental colorings caused by firing. These different colors signify that the early firing process and technology of caramel glazed porcelain was not mature. Thus the “Red Ding porcelain of Ding kiln” should refer to the redder caramel porcelains.

Purple Ding bowl

The accidental coloring caused during the firing process is not uncommon in Ding kiln, and the “oil spot glaze” is the most magnificent. With the round crystallized spots on the dark purple brown glazed surface, the artistic effect rivals the oil spot glaze of black glazed porcelain of Jian kiln, one of the famous kilns of the Song Dynasty, located in Jianyang county, Fujian province, and notable for its black glazed porcelains.

Song Dynasty black glazed stamping bowl of Ding kiln

Black Ding Porcelain

The black glazed porcelain of the Northern Song Dynasty have white-snow bodies. Black Ding porcelain ware are mostly round utensils such as plates and bowls, of which many are bamboo-hat shaped bowls and some are decorated with liquid gold.