Only one other bowl of the same form, size and almost identical decoration is known; the piece in the British Museum London, published in The World’s Great Collections. This bowl was bequeathed to the museum in 1947 by Henry J. Oppenheim, together with a small number of other ‘Ding’ pieces, including a plain dish with foliate rim, pl. The ancient piece is described as a Ding bowl because of the county Ding in the Hebei province where the kilns used to make the bowls were housed. ‘Ding’ production consisted mostly of small utilitarian wares such as dishes and bowls, generally left in their natural form undecorated in 10th and early 11th century. This was its tendency to mimic other, more precious materials such as gold and silver, huge quantities of which were stored in palace treasures’.
– One lucky New York family sold a tiny Chinese bowl this week for $2,224,997 more than they paid for it: $3, at a garage sale six years ago. The bowl, which measures roughly 5.5 inches in diameter, sat in the unnamed family's home for years; eventually, a quest to see what it was worth took them to Sotheby's, which identified it as a "Ding" bowl from the 10th or 11th century. Making their windfall even sweeter: Sotheby's had anticipated it would sell for up to $300,000, reports the New York Post. It's one of only two known bowls of its kind. (And it's not the only great buy in the news: A cottage purchased in 2007 was found to contain $30 million worth of art.)