Harvard Art Museums > 2009.69: Octagonal Headrest with Lotus and Sagittarius Decoration Furnishings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Octagonal Headrest with Lotus and Sagittarius Decoration , 2009.69,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 19, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/332040. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 2009.69 Title Octagonal Headrest with Lotus and Sagittarius Decoration Classification Furnishings Work Type headrest Date late 12th-early 13th century Places Creation Place: East Asia, China, Hebei province Period Jin dynasty, 1115-1234 Culture Chinese Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/332040 Physical Descriptions Medium Cizhou ware: light gray stoneware with clear glaze over decoration painted in dark brown slip on a white slip ground, selected details incised through the dark brown slip to reveal the white slip ground. Probably from the kilns a Bacun, Yuxian, Henan province. Dimensions H. 10.4 x W. 26.2 x D. 18 cm (4 1/8 x 10 5/16 x 7 1/16 in.) Inscriptions and Marks label: The object includes no original marks or inscriptions. However, several modern paper labels are adhered on the bottom of the piece. Some of the labels are those of Rudolph Schaeffer, of San Francisco, in whose collection this piece was from the 1950s until 1985. In addition, some of the labels appear to be museum loan stickers, perhaps from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, where the piece likely was exhibited over the years. Provenance Recorded Ownership History J.J. Lally & Co., New York, sold March-April 2009 Marvin and Pat Gordon Collection, San Francisco, owner 1985-2009 Christie's, New York, sold June 1985 Rudolf Schaeffer (1886-1988), San Francisco, owner 1950s-1985 Samuel T. Peters (1854-1921), New York, owner before 1950s Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Purchase through the generosity of Mariot Fraser Solomon and of David M. Leventhal Accession Year 2009 Object Number 2009.69 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description This ceramic pillow, or headrest, has eight sides; six of the sides are of roughly equal length, but the front and back sides are slightly longer and lightly curved, imparting an overall bean shape to the piece. The subtly concave platform top, which served as the headrest, is boldly painted in dark brown slip with a loosely tied spray of lotus, sagittaria, and pond grass; the painting is further highlighted with lightly incised and combed details. A border of alternating thick and narrow lines encloses the scene and sets off the pillow's form, distinguishing the sides from the platform top. The steep, facetted sides are embellished with quickly brushed foliate motifs in the same dark brown slip as the top. Likely made at the Bacun kilns, in Yuxian county, Henan province, this octagonal headrest dates to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The technique of manufacture immediately associates this stunning piece with the Cizhou family of kilns, which are best-remembered for ceramics with underglaze decoration painted in brown or black slip on a white slip ground atop a light gray stoneware body. In this instance, the octagonal shape points toward Yuxian as the general area of origin, just as the linear borders, the frieze of stylized foliage around the sides, the closely focused floral design on the main face, the adherence of all the representational elements to the picture plane (without spatial recession), and the creation of pictorial details by incising through the dark slip to reveal the underlying white slip all point to the Bacun kilns as the specific place of manufacture. Many headrests survive from the Bacun kilns, just as numerous extant Cizhou pots (from various Cizhou kilns) sport decoration of lotus leaf, lotus blossom, and sagittarius sprig. This headrest is special, however, for its floral spray, which is tied with a ribbon whose gracefully fluttering ends complement the more rigid plant stalks, foreshadows the elaborate, fully developed lotus bouquets, also bound with ribbons, that sometimes emblazon large blue-and-white plates made during the Xuande reign (1426-1435) of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). This headrest thus reveals that some of the quintessential designs encountered on Ming-dynasty, imperial porcelains made at Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province, were conceived and pioneered several centuries earlier by humble potters working at the distinctly non-royal, non-aristocratic Cizhou kilns. An old, Chinese, wooden storage box accompanies this piece. Several museum loan stickers appear on the base of the headrest. Publication History The Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Marvin L. Gordon: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, March 12 to April 4, 2009, auct. cat., J.J. Lally & Co. (New York, NY, 2009), no. 44 Verification Level This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
