JIN DYNASTY (1115-1234)

A similar Cizhou-type tiger-form pillow, decorated on top with a panel of a swan swimming, 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. Another similar pillow, decorated on top with a bird perched in bamboo, in the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, is illustrated by M. Tregear in Song Ceramics, New York, 1982, p. 82, no. 79, where it is dated late Northern Song-Jin dynasty, late 12th century.

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