YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY

Details

A CIZHOU 'ZHANG FAMILY' PAINTED PILLOW
YUAN DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY
The rectangular pillow is painted in brown on a white slip under a clear glaze with a landscape panel on the slightly concave top, bamboo on the front, a peony spray on the back and peony blossoms on the ends, all within ogival panels surrounded by flower scroll. The base is stamped with a three-character maker's mark, Zhang jia zao, in a vertical column capped by a lotus leaf.
12 5/8 in. (32 cm.) long

Provenance

Inouye Oriental Art, Japan.

Exhibited

Osaka, Japan, Osaka City Art Museum, Charm of Black & White Ware: Transition of Cizhou Type Wares, 1 October - 8 December 2002, no. 96.
100 Ceramic Pillows: Formerly the Hayashibara Museum collection, T. Edo Inouye & Son Oriental Art, Tokyo, March 2012, no. 83.

Lot Essay

Compare the similarly decorated pillow stamped with a five-character mark, Gu Xiang Zhang jia zao, on the base, in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, illustrated by Y. Mino and K. Tsiang in Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1980, pp. 146-47, pl. 61, where it is dated Yuan dynasty, late 13th-early 14th century, based on the style of painting, and the type of mark.

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