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Following Ernest advice, here I would like to put some photos of an item, probably Tang dynasty pillow, please let me know what you think about it
thank you
john

Hi John,

There is some information that is required before I would venture an opinion.

1. Please give measurements, length, width, depth.
2. How much would the pillow weigh?
3. Where the pillow was purchased?

The more information that you can provide, the better that we can evaluate the pillow.

Regards, Edward Shumaker

here is the size of it: 11cm * 9 cm * 5,5cm
i am not sure about the weight, but it is a bit heavy, from the words of the owner it was bought between 1986-1988 from chinese man, not dealer, in jakarta, so I guess the provenance is quite poor.
thanks

Not being an expert on this, my guess is that it is too small to be a pillow. Perhaps it is a wrist rest ?
Ernest

you are right, it was used by doctors to check the pulse

In this case, if it would be a wrist rest, it would be for a writer.
Ernest

Hi John,

As mentioned by Ernest it is too small to be a real head rest and too high to be a wrist rest.

However,the decoration style is correct for a Tang dynasty sancai object.
I could well be a "minature" head rest for tomb use.

But what was it doing in Indonesia?

Anyway,

-Could you try to put the object at eye level in strong light and see if there is some opal colors reflection. (Like oil/petrol on wet road)

-Check with a strong loupe inbetween the cracks and see if there is some whitish residue in the lines.

Also could you provide a close up of the area I circled in red on your picture.

At first glance this object looks quite genuine to me. If the answer on my 2 first points is yes, it might well be authentic.

Best regards,
Pierre.

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