decorated to the top with floral roundels and applied with a transparent russet-coloured glaze, the unglazed base revealing a reddish-burned earthenware body.

Provenance: Collection of T.Y. Chao (1912-1999), and thence by descent in the family.

Note: Compare a similar marbled porcelain pillow of the Tang dynasty, unearthed in 1975 at Gaolong Wangcha Gully in Yanshi, now preserved in the collection of Yanshi Shangcheng Museum, Henan province, illustrated on the Henan Museum website. 

Marbled porcelain pillow, Tang dynasty, unearthed in 1975 at Gaolong Wangcha Gully in Yanshi, now in the collection of Yanshi Shangcheng Museum, Henan province.