Lot Essay
The six-character sealmark reads Shengya yipian qingshan and can be translated as 'My lonely life in this world'.
Compare with a very similar example, also signed Wen Shu but without the sealmark, in The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, and illustrated by Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Christie's Books, 1999, p. 142, pl. 164.
For a full discussion on Wen Shu see ibid., p.142, where the author mentions that only twelve extant cups with this signature are recorded and only one other has an identical six-character sealmark.
Compare with a very similar example, also signed Wen Shu but without the sealmark, in The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, and illustrated by Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Christie's Books, 1999, p. 142, pl. 164.
For a full discussion on Wen Shu see ibid., p.142, where the author mentions that only twelve extant cups with this signature are recorded and only one other has an identical six-character sealmark.