Bowl with Ducks among Waves and Reeds (1100s): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Ducks among Waves and Reeds (1100s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Delicacy and refinement, combined with simplicity of shape, make Ding ware particularly attractive. The best pieces were selected by the Northern Song court for imperial use. The white, thin body is covered with a transparent ivory glaze that occasionally runs down toward the foot, forming streaks or drops called "tear-stains" by the Chinese connoisseurs. As the vessel was fired upside down, the rim was unglazed and could be bound with a metal band, such as copper or precious silver and gold.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Ducks among Waves and Reeds
• Date: 1100s
• Culture: China, Hebei province, Quyang, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: cream-glazed porcelain with incised decoration, Ding ware
• Dimensions: Diameter: 20.3 cm (8 in.); Overall: 5.4 cm (2 1/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Song Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1929.995

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hollis, Howard C. “Four Chinese Ceramics.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 3 (March 1930): 42–43, 47.
• Lee, Sherman E. The Colors of Ink: Chinese Paintings and Related Ceramics from the Cleveland Museum of Art. [New York]: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1974.
• Kleinhenz, Henry J. “Porcelains for Imperial Use: The Sung Dynasty.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 4 (April 1978): 135–150.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.