Painted Lacquer Ear Cup with Bird Pattern

The Painted Lacquer Ear Cup with Bird Pattern, unearthed from a tomb in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, is a lacquered wine vessel dating back to the Western Han Dynasty.

It features an oval mouth, a shallow belly with an arced wall, and two crescent-shaped ears upturned on both sides. Made of wood, the cup is painted black on the outside and red inside. At the center of the inside bottom is a small bird with a long tail, whose body, feet, and tail were drawn with black lines. Its body and wings are yellow-green. There are red-lacquered swirl patterns on the front and sides of the cup's ears.

As early as 8,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors used lacquer as a coating material.

In the Han Dynasty, when bronzeware gradually declined and porcelain had yet to gain popularity, lacquerware welcomed its heyday as both production techniques and artistic representation reached full maturity.

Based on the large quantity of unearthed relics from the Han Dynasty, researchers agree that lacquerware was widely used in everyday life at that time.

As traditional wine vessels in ancient China, ear cups, also known as yushang (drinking vessels), originated in the Spring and Autumn-Warring States Period.

Given that they are thin and light, ear cups with wine were floated down a running stream, a game popular among ancient literati when they drank while composing poems.

This ear cup features a simple and streamlined shape as well as vivid and exquisite decorative patterns, demonstrating the typical style of the decorative patterns of Western Han lacquerware. It is considered an exemplary artifact integrating aesthetics with practicality.

彩繪漆鳥紋耳杯

彩繪漆鳥紋耳杯是一件西漢時期的漆制酒杯，出土于湖北省荊州市的西漢墓。它杯口橢圓，淺腹弧壁，兩側杯耳呈新月形，耳面上翹。杯為木胎，漆色外黑內紅。內底正中繪有一只翹起長尾的小鳥，鳥的輪廓、足、尾由黑線勾勒，鳥身與翅膀為黃綠色。杯耳正面及側面用紅漆繪有渦紋。

早在8000年前，中國先民就已將漆作為涂料應用。漢代，青銅器逐漸衰落，瓷器還未廣受推崇，漆器步入鼎盛時期，制作工藝與藝術水平都獲得極大提升。從大量漢代出土文物來看，漆器被廣泛應用于生活。

耳杯又稱“羽觴”，出現于春秋戰國時期，是中國傳統的飲酒器具。因器薄輕便，耳杯還被盛酒后放入流水，作為古代文人飲酒賦詩的一種游戲器具。

此耳杯造型簡潔流暢，圖案生動寫實，筆觸精細，顯現出西漢漆器裝飾紋樣的典型特征，是實用與美觀結合的典范。