Tiger-shaped pillow

Among the celadon productions of the south, animal-shaped pillows were favored by Shaanxi, Henan, and Hebei potters during the Tang. The large area of the headrest in Tang pillows decreased in size from the tenth century, gradually shrinking in size to cover only the back area of the animal. Decorated with the same multi-step process described in the previous entry (cat. no. 202), the potter here omitted the step of painting the background with brown pigment, the buff color of the background seen here being that of the original biscuit. The roughly carved, yet lively facial expression, crafted in fully sculpted clay mark this pillow as a rare gangwa work.