Lot 101. A rare sancai-glazed stoneware 'Leopard's head' pillow, Jin dynasty (1115-1234); 21.5 cm, 8 1/2  in. Estimate 25,000 — 35,000 GBP. Lot sold 32,500 GBP (41,993 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's.

naturalistically modelled and glazed as a leopard head with large bulging eyes and flaring nostrils, the green-glazed semi-circular dished top incised with a fish within cash diaper and foliate scroll bands, the back inscribed under the glaze ci qu xie bi e (which may be translated as a wish to evade harm and avoid evil).

Provenance: Collection of the La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, California.
Sotheby's Los Angeles, 7th-10th June 1976, lot 1435.
Sotheby's London, 15th July 1980, lot 47.
Collection of Jane Carnegie, Melbourne.

Exhibited: Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China. Tz'u-chou Type Wares, 960-1600 AD, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1980-81 (late inclusion in the exhibition, without catalogue entry).

Oriental Art. Works of Art from China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia, Georges Gallery, Melbourne, 1981, cat. no. 21.

China without Dragons. Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic Society Members, London, 2016, cat. no. 18.

Literature: Mary Redfern, 'China Without Dragons. An Exhibition Presented by the Oriental Ceramic Society', Arts of Asia, November-December 2016, p. 159, fig. 3.

Note: Pillows in the form of leopards were believed to be capable of warding off evil spirits, as suggested in the Jiu Tangshu (Old History of the Tang Dynasty), compiled during the Later Jin dynasty (1616-1636), and exemplified by the inscription on the present piece.