A rare and impressive  'Hundred Boys' rhinoceros horn libation cup. Late Ming-early Qing dynasty, 17th century. Photo Sotheby"s

finely carved round the exterior with groups of boys in an elaborate garden setting filled with trees, craggy rocks, streams, and garden architecture, two boys playing a board game in a pavilion, while others fight crickets, beat gongs and drums, pick lotus blossoms, set off firecrackers, lion-dance, fly kites and imitate scholars, one side pierced and carved with the gnarled trunks of pine and wutong trees against a cliff face to form the handle, the interior carved with a forward-facing dragon weaving through the clouds, and another leaping dragon bearing on its back a boy holding an osmanthus branch and gold ingot, the horn of a rich reddish-brown color darkening in the interior. Length 7 3/8 in., 18.7 cm. Estimate 350,000-500,000 USD

PROVENANCE: Acquired circa 1850, and thence by descent. 

NOTE: The Hundred Boys motif has been around at least since the Song dynasty, and can be found in paintings by the Southern Song court artist, Su Hanchen. It continued to be a popular motif for ceramic decoration into the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was also frequently used on lacquerware and in embroidered and woven textiles. This motif is based on the legend of King Wen of the Zhou dynasty who had ninty-nine sons. One day he came across Lei Zhenzi, who was to be the future god of thunder, and adopted him, making the number of sons he had an even one hundred. This theme of 'a Hundred Boys' came to represent the Confucian ideals of an unending lineage, and the attainment of honor for sons through education.

These ideals are fully expressed in the present lot. The boys around the outside of the cup are carved with such skill that they give off an air of joyful exuberance. Their play includes the 'academic' such as imitating scholars, and playing chess and weiqi, and games that express the joy of youth, like setting off fire crackers, playing ball and flying kites. They engage not only in mental, but also physical games, wenwu shuangquan, with the hope that they will become well-rounded young men. A sense of depth is created by separating the groups from each other by the use of trees and rocks, so that the scenes near the foot of the cup appear to be in the foreground, with the scenes near the mouth appearing to recede into the distance.

The most unusual aspect of the present lot, is the boy riding a dragon carved on the inside. The boy holds an osmanthus branch representing success in the imperial examinations, and a gold ingot symbolizing wealth. This represents the hope that all parents had for their sons, high office and honorable wealth, summed up in the saying wangzi chenglong (hoping the son becomes a dragon). The dragon itself represents success in the imperial examinations, as the motif of a carp swimming upstream and crossing the 'dragon gate', came to represent success in the examinations after years of studying and hardship.

A cup with the same theme but larger figures than those portrayed on the present lot, from the J.J. Witsenburg collection, is illustrated in Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, p. 214, no.297. A very similar large cup with the same subject matter, dated to the Late ming / Early Qing dynasty, but without the dragons in the interior, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 31st May 2010, lot 1815.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York | 20 Mar 2012  www.sothebys.com