The mug’s design is based on the drumming scene from the “Mandarin Ducks Lacquer Box with Music and Dance”in the museum’s collection. This lacquer box, excavated from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in Suizhou, Hubei, features on its right side a painted image of a performance: a fierce beast serves as a drum stand supporting a large drum, while a mythic creature beside it strikes the drum with two drumsticks. Over 2,400 years old, the mandarin-duck lacquer box has a unique form and beautifully whimsical imagery, and is acclaimed as a representative masterpiece of Warring States lacquerware.
