Bonhams 1793 : A large and rare carved rhinoceros horn libation cup 17th/18th century

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8 Nov 2012 10:00 GMT London, New Bond Street
Fine Chinese Art
Back to auction 20024

A large and rare carved rhinoceros horn libation cup

17th/18th century
The horn of warm pale amber tone, carved with a continuous scene of a scholar leading his horse down through a rocky landscape to water at a stream where five other unbridled horses roam, the handle naturalistically formed from trees and rockwork, the branches reaching into the interior of the cup.
12.5cm (5in) high

Sold for £61,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

Provenance: an English private collection

十七/十八世紀犀角雕山水人物圖杯

來源: 英國私人收藏

The United Kingdom Government has imposed an almost complete prohibition on granting a license to permit the export of worked antique rhinoceros horn from the UK to any destination outside the European Union. Please check with the department for further details.

Two rhinoceros horn cups from the Chester Beatty collection which have horses, without human figures, in a rocky landscape are illustrated by J.Chapman in The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pls.232 and 238. Similarly to the present cup, both Chester Beatty Library cups are carved with willow branches above the horses.

Compare a related rhinoceros horn 'scholar and horses' libation cup, 17th century, sold at Christie's London, on 8 November 2011, lot 12; and a libation cup carved with the Eight Horses of Muwang, late 17th century, illustrated by T.Fok in Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, pl.168, later sold at Christie's Hong Kong, on 31 May 2010, lot 1817.