A RARE AND EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-CARVED CHINESE RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION CUP

A RARE AND EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-CARVED CHINESE RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION CUP
17TH CENTURY

The sides are crisply carved in high relief illustrating a river landscape scene with pine and wutong trees growing amongst over-hanging rocks and boulders; to one side, three scholars sit on a flattened rock shelf around a small table playing weiqi while a boy attends to a brazier. The water is represented as finely defined almond-shaped waves, the handle as two gnarled and knotted pine tree trunks and the flat base is carved as water and rocks. The trees and rocks extend to the wide mouth, the interior depicts a small chilong in high relief confronting a larger dragon emerging amidst clouds above the handles. The material is of a rich dark caramel tone darkening to walnut and with a high polish. The cup is raised on an elaborate hardwood stand, pierced and carved as high rocks, lingzhi and cascading water, 478g, 13.8cm high, 19cm long. (2)

Please note that an export licence will only be granted for rhinoceros horn pieces, should the hammer price meet or exceed the value of 100 USD per gram of the item’s weight.

Provenance: from an English private collection, Lincolnshire, purchased by the current owner from Sworders, 8th November 2016, lot 218.

Cf. J Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, p.210, no.289, for a closely related libation cup. See also T Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carvings in China, no.16, for a similar cup in the collection of Harvard University, Art Museums.

The subject on the side of this cup cannot be definitively identified. A closely related example in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, a gift by J Pierpont Morgan, no.08.212.10, with a similar scene of three figures amongst pine trees in a rocky river landscape, is described by Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, p.210, no.289, as decorated with a scene from the famous Song dynasty poem, ‘Later Ode to the Red Cliff’. There is no boat or raft visible in the scene, and the same cup is also described by the Metropolitan Museum, as depicting the ‘Three Laughers of Tiger Ravine’, which is an allegory referring to the unity of the three religious doctrines: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. However, perhaps they are just three scholars enjoying each other’s company and a game of weiqi in a beautiful mountainous river landscape.

十七世紀 犀角雕松下高士圖螭龍紋杯及底座
來源：英國林肯郡私人收藏，2016年11月8日購於Sworders拍賣行，編號218。