Archived as Ming Dynasty artworks, the funnel-shaped silver cups collected in the Palace Museum consist of 12 silver cups stacked together in sequence. Each silver cup is inlaid with black substance on the inside walls to form a decorative painting showing stories of some famous figures from various generations, with the name of a story annotated on the inside bottom, the name of the study marked on the outside bottom and some characters marked on one outside wall indicating the source of material for cup-making. Based on the background of a historical allusion—“lying under the urn in drink”, Zhang Li, researcher of the Palace Museum, has speculated that the set of silver cups were actually made in the Qing Dynasty.  In China, the decoration technique of inlaying a black substance on the surface of silverware is very rare. Some scholars call the process of inlaying black substance on silver cups “negative engraving with black lacquer”, and other studies have found that the decoration technique for silver cups is more likely to be niello-inlaying. In foreign countries, niello is referred to as a black metal sulfide generated at high temperature by sulfur and at least one or more metals, and is used to decorate metal objects such as gold, silver and copper wares. The process of applying niello to the surface of metal objects is known as niello-laying. In order to clarify the decoration technique for silver cups, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used for the observation and analysis of one silver cup. The results show that the black substance was inlaid in grooves by melting with heat and polished after curing to make the surface flat, the black substance consists of Cu, Pb, Ag and S elements and the tested sample contains stromeyerite. The above indicates that the black substance is niello formed by silver/copper/lead sulfide and the decoration technique for the silver cups is niello-inlaying. According to the studies of related scholars, there are three different recipes of niello used for silverware in ancient China, among which niello of pure silver sulfide needs to be generated in situ on the objects, while niello of silver/copper sulfide and niello of silver/copper/lead sulfide need to be prepared first and then decorated on the surfaces of objects. In combination with the manufacturing method for niello on the silver cups, it is inferred that the process of inlaying niello on the surface of the cups is as follows:1) preparing niello containing silver/copper/lead elements; 2) powdering the niello; 3) filling niello powder into grooves or covering ornamental areas of the objects with niello (not powdered); 4) heating to melt niello and making it inlaid into grooves; 5) polishing after it is cooled.