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拍品专文
This pillow is a good example of the well-known production by the Zhang family of the Dong Aikou area of Cixian county, Hebei Province. From the late 11th to early 12th centuries, the Zhang family produced a distinctive type of rectangular pillow, as evident here, decorated in white slip with iron-brown highlights within ruyi-shaped cartouches. Though ceramic pillows were typically used for burial, some were also used by the living and were thought to protect against evil and promote the birth of male heirs.
The back panel of a related Zhang family pillow from Puyang in Henan Province shows a tiger with nearly identical fur markings as seen on the top panel of the present lot; see Wenwu, 1988:5, pp. 93-94. For a tiger in similar pose on another Zhang family pillow of cloud-shape, see the Chinese Ceramic Pillows from the Yeung Wing Tak Collection, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Japan, 1984, p.45, no.58. Compare, also, a similar rectangular pillow by the same maker, depicting a lion instead of a tiger on the top face, published in the Treasures of the Orient: Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 28 March - 1 April 1979, no. 59.
The back panel of a related Zhang family pillow from Puyang in Henan Province shows a tiger with nearly identical fur markings as seen on the top panel of the present lot; see Wenwu, 1988:5, pp. 93-94. For a tiger in similar pose on another Zhang family pillow of cloud-shape, see the Chinese Ceramic Pillows from the Yeung Wing Tak Collection, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Japan, 1984, p.45, no.58. Compare, also, a similar rectangular pillow by the same maker, depicting a lion instead of a tiger on the top face, published in the Treasures of the Orient: Hall of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 28 March - 1 April 1979, no. 59.