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Lot Essay
While other pillows of this shape are known, it is relatively rare to find examples with the present twin duck design and glazed blue. The twin duck motif probably derives from Sassanian Persia, and the first examples of it appear on silver and textiles before pottery. See a silver box illustrated by Bo Gyllensvard, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, Catalogue, pl. 94.
An almost identical pillow from the Luoyang Museum of Cultural Relics is illustrated in Collection of Masterpieces of Chinese Cultural Relics - Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 131, fig. 457. A second is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha, Japan, 1982, vol. 1, fig. 39, from the Tokyo National Museum and in the Catalogue of the Tokyo National Museum, Ceramics, vol. I, p. 68, no. 265. The same pattern on a green ground is illustrated by Seiichi Mizuno, Tousansai (Tang Sancai), Heibonsha, Japan, 1977, vol. 35, col. pl. 21.
Compare also, the example with figures and a camel from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha, Japan, 1980, vol. 10, no. 73; and the pillow with a florette rosette exhibited in The Arts of T'ang Dynasty, T.O.C.S., 1954-55, vol. 29, pl. 148, lent by H.M. The King of Sweden, and now in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, and also illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha, Japan, 1982, vol. 8, col. pl. 21.
The result of Oxford Thermoluminescence test no. C97f84 is consistent with the dating of this lot.