Green Drip Glaze Headrest

By the 18th century, opium use had become as central to Chinese social life as taking tea or smoking tobacco, fostering a subculture rich with its own customs, traditions, and exquisitely crafted accoutrements.

This ceramic headrest is one such accessory, used atop a woven daybed to support the head of a lounging smoker. Tall and rigid, the headrest would have been less of a pillow and more of a platform that allowed the inebriated smoker to more comfortably lie on their side and have a view of the opium lamp.

Today, the headrest is a beautiful sculptural object, decorated with a coin-shaped cutout and a glassy blue-green glaze that drips down the sides in contrast to the crazed white field.