A rare bean-shaped Cizhou sgraffito pilow, China, Song-Yuan dynasty. Estimate 3000/5000 €. Unsold . Photo Nagel

The concave top decorated in sgraffito technique with a lotos leaf and pod. the details of the petals and leaves skilfully picked out through the creamy-white slip to the underlying light brown ground, all enclosed within a border, the creamy-white slip extending down the sides to the unglazed base. B. 25,2 cm. Unglazed sections to top

Property from an important South German private collection

Note: A bean-shaped pillow of similar type, decorated with a lotus bouquet, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong 1996, pl. 177; another in Regina Krahl, Yuegutang: A Collection of Chinese Ceramics in Berlin, Berlin, 2000, pl. 160; and a barbed 'Cizhou' pillow of this type, also with a lotus bouquet, was included in the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society exhibition Song Ceramics, National Museum, Singapore, 1983, cat.no. 181 

NAGEL. "Asian Art". Sale 722, 06/06/2015