A Cizhou slip-decorated pillow with stamped and incised decoration, Northern Song dynasty, 11th century.  Estimate US$8,000 - 12,000 (€7,100 - 11,000). Photo Bonhams.

Of bean shape, covered by a layer of white slip incised with a feather-patterned band on the canted side walls and two chrysanthemums in bloom against a stamped 'fish roe' ground across the canted top, the clay fabric exposed in the process burnt a pale brown beneath a colorless glaze that stops unevenly above the flat base. 7 3/4in (19.7cm) long

Notes: For similarly shaped and decorated pillows in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago, see Mino Yutaka, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 A.D., 1980, pp. 64-65, pl. 20 and fig. 41.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE WORKS OF ART AND PAINTINGS, 23 Jun 2015 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO