Dingyao white-glazed “official” shaped bowl

[Ding Kiln White Glaze “Guan” shaped bowl]

Ding Kiln White Glaze “Guan” shaped bowl, five generations, height 6.6 cm, caliber 17 cm, foot diameter 6 cm
The bowl is open, with sloping walls and round feet. The carcass is light and thin. The inside and outside of the bowl and the inside of the ring foot are all painted with white glaze. The glaze color is pure. The word “official” is engraved on the foot center
This bowl is the product of Ding Kiln in Quyang, Hebei Province, during the Five Dynasties, and is the best of the white glazed porcelain of the same era
According to the textual research, the inscriptions of Ding kiln porcelain from the late Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty are mostly carved with “official” and “new official”. Only in 1985, 33 pieces of white porcelain with the word “official” were unearthed in the northern suburb of Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. In 1969, 17 pieces of porcelain with “official” and “new official” patterns carved on Ding Kiln of the Northern Song Dynasty were also unearthed at the base of the Buddhist relics of Jingzhi Temple in Dingxian County, Hebei Province. In the Beijing Palace Museum and the Taipei Palace Museum, there are also several “official” Ding kiln porcelain collections, mainly plates, bowls, water containers, pots and other utensils. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 80 Ding kiln porcelain with “official” in the collection at home and abroad. In the past, some scholars believed that some of the porcelain with the “official” style was the products of the official kilns of the Liao Dynasty. However, since the large number of “official” style porcelain was unearthed at the two tower foundations of Ding County, Hebei Province, the academic community has basically unified the view that the “official” style white porcelain is the products of Ding Kiln. After some workshops of Ding Kiln were expropriated by the royal family or the government in that year, in order to prevent confusion with civilian artifacts, the word “official” was specially carved to show the difference. Compared with the non-signed Ding kiln porcelain of the same period, these “official” type porcelain are quite exquisite and belong to high-quality products, which have reached the standard of palace porcelain.

定窑白釉“官”字款碗款识