Lot 1701. A fine and rare small melon-form rhinoceros horn cup, Qing dynasty, 18th century; 3/16 in. (8 cm.) across. Weight: 1.4 oz. (40 gm). Estimate: HK$150,000 - HK$200,000 ($20,000 - $26,000). Price realised HKD 511,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2008

Exquisitely carved as half a melon with lobed sides borne on a leafy vine and curling tendrils, with large serrated leaves forming the ring foot and concealing a small melon inside carved in the round, the interior with the gentle lobes of the fruit left undecorated to simulate the skin of the melon, the material of a lustrous deep walnut brown tone, wood stand, box. 

Literature: T. Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 149, no.99.

Exhibited: Hong Kong Museum of Art, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth: Gems of Antiquities Collection in Hong Kong, 2002-2005.

Notes: Previously sold at Sotheby's New York, 19 September 1998, lot 395.
Compare the present cup with a related but slightly larger rhinoceros horn melon-shaped cup in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, illustrated by J. Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pl. 226. Compare also a small melon-form cup from the Arthur M. Sackler and Ruth Dreyfus collections sold at Christie's New York, 1 December 1994, lot 24.

Christie's Hong Kong. Important Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Carvings from the Songzhutang Collection. 27 May 2008