CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, XVIIEME SIECLE

Details

RARE COUPE LIBATOIRE EN CORNE DE RHINOCEROS SCULPTEE
CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, XVIIEME SIECLE
Très finement sculptée, à l'extérieur d'un décor de rivières, une barque occupée par deux personnages naviguant sur l'une d'elles, les berges rocailleuses agrémentées de pavillons et arbres, un daim couché sur une rive, au-dessus de lui deux singes, l'un perché sur une branche de grenadier, l'autre tentant d'attraper des pêches, ces dernières poussant sur les rameaux feuillagés de deux arbres tortueux formant anses
Hauteur: 7,7 cm. (3 in.), Longueur: 16,3 cm. (6 3/8 in.)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT payable at 19.6% (5.5% for books) will be added to the buyer’s premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Further details

A RARE CARVED RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION CUP
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, 17TH CENTURY

Lot Essay

The present lot is very unusual. It is indeed quite rare to find the well-known Daoist legend of a mischievous monkey stealing a peach of longevity from the vast peach orchard owned by Xiwangmu, carved on rhinoceros horn libation cups.
Compare the rhinoceros horn cup carved with similar monkeys and rocks in the collection of the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art illustrated by J. Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London 1999, p.182, no.241, where the author suggests that the monkeys depicted might represent gibbons, which were a popular subject in Chinese art.
See another rhinoceros horn libation cup decorated with monkeys leaping atop rocks, sold in our New York Rooms, 19 September 2006, lot 47.

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