Page 152 - Chiense works of art sothebys march 14 2017 nyc

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A RARE WHITEWARE ‘BOY’ PILLOW
NORTHERN SONG / JIN DYNASTY
well modeled in the form of a reclining boy cradling the stem
and nestled beneath a large lotus leaf, the head resting on the
long foliate stem curling around the body, the face with a calm
expression detailed with half-closed eyes and a small mouth,
all supported on a low plinth carved in relief with stylized
water swirls above a raise llet, covered overall with a soft
transparent glaze pooling in the recesses
Width 8 in., 20.4 cm
$ 300,000-400,000
First manufactured in the Tang dynasty, ceramic pillows
became popular and treasured items for the elite by the
Song dynasty. Guides to elegant living printed in the Ming
dynasty reveals that these pillows had functions beyond that
of providing support while sleeping. The late Ming writer, Gao
Lian, in the Cunsheng bajian [Eight discourses on the art of
living], published in 1591, states that ‘porcelain may be used
to make pillows… it has power to brighten the eyes and bene t
the pupils’. He further notes that the immortal Yao used three
scrolls with signi cant writings piled-up to make a pillow
and ‘thereby he dreamed pure and elegant dreams’. Thus
the material and the iconography of the pillow were of great
importance in providing both health bene ts and mediating
between the conscious and unconscious as dreams were
believed to have signi cant meaning in China.
The ceramic body was also bene cial as they were designed
to cool the bed during hot summer nights. The Northern Song
poet, Zhang Lei, in his poem Thanks to Master Huang for the
Green Porcelain Pillow, wrote: ‘Pillow made by Gong is strong
and blue; an old friend gave it to me to beat the heat; it cools the World, vol. 12, 1977, col. pl. 12. Two qingbai pillows of boys
down the room like a breeze; keeping my head cool while I
sleep’.
The symbolism of the boy carrying a lotus leaf suggests this
was created for the occasion of a marriage and the wish for the
production of male heirs and is reference to the Song Dynasty
custom of children imitating fertility-cult gurines, mohele,
during the Qixi (Double Seven) festival. Ceramic pillows are
commonly found decorated with the theme of playing children,
as well as other motifs representing the blessing for a happy
marriage, such as birds, owers, butter ies and lions (to ward
away evil spirits).
Fig. 1. A carved ‘boy’ pillow, Northern Song dynasty
© Museum of the Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nanyue King
150 SOTHEBY’S
Pillows in the form of boys were produced by a number of
di erent kilns; for example, a Cizhou pillow of this type, also
with a solid base, was gifted to the Museum of the Western
Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nan Yue King, Guangzhou
( g. 1); and another, published in Cizhou yaoci zhen [Cizhou
ceramic pillows], Beijing, 2000, p. 270. See a related Yaozhou
pillow of this type, in the Meiyintang collection, illustrated
in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang
Collection, vol. 3, pt. II, London, 2006, pl. 1479; and another,
from the Jaehne collection in the Newark Museum, New
Jersey, included in the exhibition Chinese Art from the Newark
Museum, China Institute in America, New York, 1980, cat.
no. 15. For sancai-glazed examples, see three pillows sold at
auction, the rst a carved Chengguan sancai-glazed pillow,
attributed to the Northern Song dynasty, from the collection
of Mark Lam, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 4th October 2016,
lot 117; the second and third both sold in our London rooms, on
9th December 1986, lot 124 and 2nd March 1971, lot 137. See a
Ding version, in the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina
Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 3,
pt. II, London, 2006, pl. 1428; and three others, published in
Ding Yao Ceramics from the Beixuan Shuzhai Collection, Hong
Kong, 2013, pls 14-16, together with two pillows in the form of
reclining ladies, pls 17-18; another illustrated in Ding ci yi shu
[The art of Ding porcelain], Hebei 2002, pl. 138, together with
two pillows of reclining boys without a lotus leaf, pls 136-137;
and a sixth example sold in these rooms, 23rd September
1995, lot 398. A similar Ding pillow, but now lacking its lotus
leaf, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included
in Suzanne G. Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese
Ceramics, New York, 1992, pl. 26; and another, but with the
boy lying on his right side on a rectangular couch under a large
lingzhi fungus, from the Avery Brundage collection in the Asian
Art Museum of San Francisco, published in Ceramic Art of
similarly modelled supporting a headrest in the form of a lotus
leaf are illustrated in Rose Kerr, Song Through 21st Century
Eyes. Yaozhou and Qingbai Ceramics, Dreumel, 2009, pls. 2-15
and 2-16; another of a sleeping boy, included in the exhibition
Ceramic Finds from Jingdezhen Kilns, Fung Ping Shan Museum,
1992, cat. no. 70; and a further example, in the Zhenjiang
Museum, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, is included in Chinese
Ceramics, Song Yuan Dynasty, Taipei, 1989, p. 382.
The dating of this lot is consistent with the result of a
thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication Ltd., sample
no. P102q93, 18th June 2002.