Three colors double lions flower porcelain pillow, Song Dynasty, preserved at Yunnan Province Museums

Decoration techniques of porcelain pillows were different from each other in accordance with different dynasties and producing areas. Before the Tang and Five Dynasties period (7th -10th century), porcelain pillows were mainly of module imprint and carefully carved; in the Song and Jin period (10th-13th century), porcelain pillows featured paintings and more complicated decoration techniques. With further improvement of porcelain-making skills and decoration techniques, porcelain pillows demonstrated more and more beautiful arts and crafts.

Three colors mandarin ducks pillow, Tang Dynasty

Besides Cizhou porcelain pillows, many well-known kilns in different places of China all produced fine porcelain pillows, which featured different designs and decorations of glaze and lines and whose styles as a whole were consistent to their corresponding dynasties and characteristics of kilns.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) with the emergence of better pillow-making materials,porcelain gradually phased out.

Editor:Wang Nan