THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
A RARE LARGE FAMILLE ROSE PILLOW OF A CRAWLING BOY

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A RARE LARGE FAMILLE ROSE PILLOW OF A CRAWLING BOY
QIANLONG

The plump infant crouching on all fours, his face with a happy expression raised to the left, his feet kicked up, his black hair tied in top knots, wearing a typical child's garment around his waist enamelled with blue sprays, roundels of fruit and foliage and a large dragon at his stomach, surface slightly worn
15 in. (39 cm.) long

Lot Essay

Previously sold in Hong Kong 16 November 1988, lot 370.

Pillows of this form were almost certainly inspired by dingyao and yingqing pillows from the Song Dynasty. A yingqing example, in the Zhenjiang City Museum, modelled as a boy lying on his side below a lotus leaf shaped headrest, is illustrated in Son of Heaven, Imperial Arts of China, fig. 78.

Compare also with two similar pillows of crawling boys carved in jadeite and dated to the 19th century, the first from the Imperial Summer Palace, now in the Metropolitan Museum collection; the other from a private collection offered in these Rooms, 30 October 1995, lot 1260.

(US$13,000-20,000)

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