JIN DYNASTY (1115-1234)

A similar Cizhou-type tiger-form pillow, but decorated with a swan rather than a crane, is illustrated by Jiena Huo in Fire and Earth: Early Chinese Ceramics (3500 B.C. - 1400 A.D.) in the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, 2008, p. 187, no. 147, where it is dated Jin dynasty, 12th century, and suggests that it is probably from Changzhi, in Shanxi, where other pillows of this type have been found.

Animal-form pillows were believed to protect against evil and to have helped women give birth to sons.