Pillow

This bean-shaped head-rest represents a sub-group of cizhou ware, mainly pillows whose floral designs were created by incising through a white slip and setting them off against a punch marked, so-called fish-roe ground. Cizhou wares with incised designs on a ground of closely stamped rings like this example were produced from the tenth to early twelfth century. The ring-punch ground design was most likely influenced by Tang dynasty (618-906) metalwork wherein ring-punched grounds were used to set off major design motifs in gold and silver vessels.