Gold wingled cup

Wings cup is also called Yu Shang. The cup is in oval shape, curved side, flat foot, and decorated with two ears on each side. The earlist written record of the wings cup can be found in "Chu Ci - Zhao Hun". It is also noted in the songs and poems about Yu Shang in Han, Jin and Tang periods. Traditional Chinese characters "Jun Xin Jiu" was found on one of the unearthed lacquer ear cup in No.1 Han Tomb at Mawangdui, which suggests that the wings cup was used for wine, soup and other food storage in ancient China. The earliest unearthed ear cup could be discovered seldomly in the late Spring and Autumn period tombs, and till Warring States period the quantity of wings cup increased a lot. Depending on the diffrerent shapes of the ear, it can basicially been divided into two styles - the square ones and the round ones. There are also a small number of wings stem cup. Most of them are in lacquer, the inside are mainly in red lacquer whilst the outside are mainly in black lacquer. Jade and gold ear cup can be found rarely.