Ear cups were first produced in lacquer during the Han dynasty and interred in the tombs of the wealthy and elite. Jade counterparts of this object were subsequently made during the Qing dynasty, where archaism was a major preoccupation for the Emperor and his Court. |A white jade ear cup, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, incised with a Qianlong four-character seal mark, is illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, no. 31.|玉質青色，微泛褐斑。羽觴杯又稱耳杯，造型取自漢代漆器耳杯。此器呈橢圓形如船形，兩側有半月形雙耳，兩耳各鏤雕五榖紋，耳側刻細密蟠螭網格紋，全器光素無紋，器底亦琢橢圓形淺圈足。羽觴玉質溫潤，整體造型規整，透發著古樸的氣息。|台北國立故宮博物院藏一件乾隆時期帶款的玉蕉葉紋耳杯可資參考，見張麗瑞著，《宮廷之雅：清代仿古及畫意玉器特展圖錄》，台北，1997年，圖版31。