這件瓷枕的弧形表面為貓戲蝴蝶這一充滿生趣的場景提供了完美的畫布。事實上，這種紋飾的製作工藝非常複雜，先將黑彩塗在枕頭表面的白色化妝土上，然後將部分黑彩剔除，露出紋飾。貓與蝴蝶的組合代表了對長壽的美好願景。
宋代筆記 vol.45 宋徽宗的枕頭？白地黑花貓蝶紋枕，磁州宮廷概念 - Emperor Huizong's Pillow? An Eskenazi Glazed slip-decorated ‘cat and butterfly’ stoneware pillow.
北宋—金，公元十二世紀—十三世紀磁州，或為觀台窯，河北省
高：十八·四公分 寬：三十一·〇公分
貓與蝴蝶的母題一直是宋代宮廷的重要場景，台北故宮博物院就藏有傳是宋徽宗親筆的貓與蝴蝶扇面絹本繪畫。
這種宮廷主題的內容出現在磁州窯的器物上，也是一種對現代藏家們民窯的刻板印象的挑戰。五大名窯大於其他宋代窯口的假設變得不攻自破。
宋徽宗真蹟耄耋圖 卷 - 台北故宮博物院
趙佶 , 37.1x205.9
戴圍巾？
宋徽宗聽琴圖局部
這一隻小貓，和宋徽宗親筆的幾隻小貓不同，戴著一條很漂亮的絲巾，其紋樣是宋代宮廷最流行的卷草紋，這種圖案源自北朝時代的「忍冬紋」，是鄴城造像、響堂山石窟等北朝造像中重要的母題，在宋代演變成「卷草紋」，宋徽宗的聽琴圖中，他的琴桌就裝飾了這個紋樣。
可以確定這是宋徽宗本人很喜歡的一種裝飾，而這隻小貓，是否就是宋徽宗本人的愛寵呢？
帝王都愛給寵物帶項圈 / 圍巾？
是的。
磁州窯宮廷訂製概念
同樣有宮廷主題的磁州窯器物是日本神戶白鶴美術館收藏的龍紋梅瓶（鉅鹿縣）和美國納爾遜博物館收藏的龍紋鳳尾尊（鉅鹿縣）。這類的器物為藏家、學者們提供了繼續研究宋代宮廷訂製的重要線索。
誰是埃斯肯納齊？ Who is Eskenazi?
Glazed slip-decorated ‘cat and butterfly’ stoneware pillow
Northern Song - Jin dynasty, 12th - 13th century
Cizhou, probably Guantai kilns, Hebei province
Height: 18.4cm Width: 31.0cm
The curved surface of this ceramic pillow provides the perfect blank canvas for this striking and playful scene of a pet cat toying with a butterfly. It is in fact produced by an extremely labour-intensive method in which black slip was applied over white slip on the pillow surface and then part of the black slip was cut away leaving the decoration in reserve. The combination of a cat with a butterfly also represents an auspicious wish for longevity.
Exhibited:
London, 2021, Oriental Ceramic Society, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, University of London.
Published:
Sarah Wong and Stacey Pierson eds., Collectors, Curators, Connoisseurs:
A Century of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1921 - 2021, London, 2021, number 66.
Similar examples:
Gakuji Hasebe, Chinese Ceramics, Cizhou Ware, volume 7, Heibonsha,
Tokyo, 1996, number 47 for a pillow decorated with a cat and a butterfly formerly in the collection of the Chang Foundation, Taiwan; also, Art and Collection, number 219, December 2010, page 206.
Erik Wettergren and Ake Stavenow, Utställning av Äldre Kinesiskt Konstantverk ur Svenska Samlingar, Stockholm, 1928, page 22, number 321 for a very similar pillow decorated just with a cat, formerly in the collection of Gerard Versteegh; also, Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, plate 45k; also, Yutaka Mino, Freedom of Clay and Brush through Seven Centuries in Northern China: Tz'u-chou Type Wares,
960 - 1600 A.D., Indianapolis, 1980, page 108, figure 110; also Christie's, London, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 10 Dec 1990, lot 121 for the same pillow.
There is a well-known group of these pillows from the Cizhou kilns with ruyi- shaped head-rests, decorated either with white slip against a black ground or black slip against a white ground, often with designs featuring flora and fauna. Pillows with black slip decoration against white include striking examples such as the one with a beehive-shaped peony spray (the Iwasaki collection); with a magpie on a branch (Idemitsu Museum of Arts); with the standing bear chained to a post (British Museum); a pair of fish in reeds (Yamato Bunkakan Museum); and a deer amid clouds (Asian Art Museum, San Francisco). Ruyi-shaped pillows with white slip decoration against a black ground include one with a peony spray (Tokyo National Museum) and another with a bird perched on flowering branches with a butterfly (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).1
It has been suggested by Jan Wirgin2 that these pillows were producedat a specific Cizhou kiln, the Guantai kiln, the wares of which were said to be made of fine grey clay covered with a white slip and transparent glaze. Further to this, some archaeological evidence suggests that the technique of black slip sgraffito design over white slip may have been created at the Cizhou kilns and that it appeared at the Guantai kiln after the Shenzong reign (1048 - 1085) of the Northern Song period.3 As this was an extremely labour-intensive method in which black slip was applied over white slip and then part of the black slip was cut away leaving the design in reserve, it was only used on finer pieces. This technique was copied to decorate objects from the Ding kilns, particularly meiping and porcelain pillows.
The combination of a cat and a butterfly is a design signifying the auspicious wish for longevity.4
1 The pillows are variously illustrated, including by Jan Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, plates 45 and 46; and in Gakuji Hasebe, Chinese Ceramics, Cizhou Ware, volume 7, Heibonsha, Tokyo, 1996, numbers 44 - 49 and 61 - 62.
2 Jan Wirgin, op. cit., pages 95 - 97.
3 China Archaeology and Art Digest, ‘Porcelain and Society’, volume 3, number 4, June 2000, pages 52 - 53.
4 The word for butterfly is a rebus on the word ‘age seventy to eighty’ (die) and the word for cat is a rebus on the word ‘age eighty to ninety’ (mao).
The cat and butterfly motif has long been an important courtly motif in the Song dynasty, and the National Palace Museum in Taipei has a fan-screen painting of a cat and butterfly in serigraphy that is said to have been painted by Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty. The presence of this courtly theme on the wares of the Magnetic State Kiln is a challenge to the stereotypical image of folk kilns held by modern collectors. The assumption that the Five Famous Kilns were more important than the other Song dynasty kilns has been disproved.
Magnetic kiln wares that also have a courtly theme are the dragon-decorated plum vase in the collection of the Hakutsuru Museum in Kobe, Japan, and the dragon-decorated phoenix-tailed zun in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum in the United States. These wares provide collectors and scholars with important clues for the study of Imperial Orders of Song Court.
Scarf?
This kitten, unlike some of Song Huizong's kittens in painting, is wearing a very beautiful silk scarf with a pattern of the most popular curly grass pattern of the Song court, which originated from the "Nendon pattern" of the Northern Dynasties and was an important motif in the statues of the Northern Dynasties such as those of the Ye City statue and the Xiangtang Mountain Grottoes, and evolved into the "curly grass pattern" in the Song Dynasty, which is seen in the picture of Song Huizong listening to the qin and which adorns the table of the qin in the picture of Song Huizong listening to his qin.
It is certain that this was a kind of decoration that Song Huizong himself liked, and is this kitten the favorite pet of Song Huizong himself?
From Eskenazi Website: Only two more days to visit our exhibition 'Chinese ceramics, lacquer and gold from the 12th to the 14th century’ which closes at 5pm tomorrow (Saturday, 4 November).
Daniel’s dog Charlie paid a visit this week having heard there was a cat getting all the attention at work….
摘自埃斯肯納齊網站： 明天（11 月 4 日，星期六）下午 5 點，我們的展覽 "12 至 14 世紀的中國陶瓷、漆器和金器 "就要結束了。
丹尼爾的愛犬查理本週前來參觀，因為它聽說有一隻貓在公司搶盡了風頭....。