Rectangular pillow with lotus flowers

The motif consisting of a lotus flower, lotus leaves, and an arrowroot, symbolic of fertility and purity, was one of the design elements which appeared most often on Northern Song ceramics. Rectangular pillows without an overgabled top have been discovered in tenth-twelfth century tombs. The composition, a main motif flanked by two rows of floral sprays on each side, was conventional for three-color glazed pillows of the Song cizhou type (Shoudu Mus. 1991: pl. 26). The polychrome glazes applied over incised lines on such pillows were most often dominated by green and yellow, and often mottled with brown and white.