Duck-Handled Cup

Tang Dynasty, 618 - 906 AD
Gansu Provincial Museum

The handle of this sancai-glazed cup is shaped like a duck's curving neck and head, whose feathers extend onto the body of the cup. The duck is grooming the fluff of its stomach with its beak. The cup's design may have been inspired by contact with rhytons, those animal-headed Western drinking-cups encountered along the Silk Road.