Is it a pillow?

[williamh]

I am not sure what it is. There is a mark but I can't find the meaning of the symbols. Someone told me it could be a pillow.

[Hmm]

The characters say I believe ????.  So I think this pillow is for sleeping on, rather than the wrist version, used for taking a person's pulse. 

[williamh]

do you know how old it could be?

[Stan]

This is fairly new, from my understanding, I was at an antique show awhile back and one of the dealers had Chinese pillow that was similar to this, I was listening in on the conversation that the Chinese were having with the dealer, they said that the west has no idea what the Chinese use to sleep on and said do you really think that we use something with such sharp corners to sleep on, traditional porcelain billows are well rounded and would not be like this, so if that is true then this would be late 20th century.

[williamh]

Thank you Stan. I've found something online on alaintruong.com.  It is a ming dynasty pillow. The decorations are very different but it is a similar shape.

[peterp]

Hi William,
I'm afraid yours could not be anything earlier than Guangxu or republic period. The way the dragons are painted fixes the period to this, although it may be later as the glaze does not show any age or usage signs.

[Stan]

Thank you William, maybe the Chinese I heard did not know what they were talking about, I looked at other examples and are similar in shape as yours.