Page 130 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art 09/13/17

100

PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED NORTH
AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION

A GREEN-GLAZED ‘FLORAL’
PILLOW
LIAO / JIN DYNASTY

of bean shape, freely incised and carved to the
slightly concave top with a central lozenge panel
enclosing a ower spray, against a carved foliate
ground and bordered by a row of petals, covered
with a transparent green glaze pooling at the
recesses
Width 12¾ in., 32.5 cm

PROVENANCE

Acquired prior to the 1950s.

$ 8,000-12,000

100 1950

101 101
128 SOTHEBY’S
PROPERTY OF A LADY, PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

A ‘CIZHOU’ TIGER-FORM PILLOW
JIN DYNASTY

well-modeled in the form of a recumbent tiger,
freely painted with bold brown stripes on an
orange slip ground, the ferocious beast with
round indented ears, stippled and furrowed
eyebrows centered by a wang character, the
nostrils formed by two small air holes, its mouth
pulled back revealing two sharp front fangs, the
tail curling around the back haunches, the slightly
concave back reserved in dark-orange slip with
a bean-shaped panel depicting a recumbent
white-spotted deer resting between two shrubs,
all beneath a clear glaze, the at gray stoneware
base unglazed for ring
Length 15½ in., 39.4 cm

PROVENANCE

Sotheby’s New York, 12th June 1984, lot 226.

A number of tiger-shaped Cizhou pillows have
been published, varying in the decoration on the
surface, but often painted with birds, owers and
animals. The painting on this piece is unusual;
rather than the more typical white ground, the
concave bean-shaped section is a dark amber
color. A pillow with the same overall orange-slip
ground and a wang character between the eyes,
but not as nely-painted, reported to have been
excavated at Jiaozuo Henan and now in the
Jiaozuo Museum, Henan Province is illustrated in
Thousand Years Dream, Chinese Ceramic Pillows,
Beijing, 2007, pp. 56-57.

$ 10,000-15,000

1984 6 12 226