Exhibition: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth: Gems of Antiquities Collections in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2004.

Litterature: Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pls. 351-2.
Thomas Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 126.

For examples of rhinoceros horn vases see a beautiful plain ribbed vase, attributed to the 18th century, in the collection of the Harvard University Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., included in Thomas Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China,Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 125, and in Chapman, op.cit., pl. 92, where the piece is depicted with four lotus leaves, a lotus bud and a lotus blossom, all of which have long stems that fit into the top of the vase, suggesting how it may have been used at the court. Chapman, op.cit., pl. 93, also illustrates a vase, in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, of bottle form and carved with an archaistic motif; and another ‘archaistic’ vase is included in Fok, op.cit., from the collection of Dora Wong. Compare another bottle vase sold in these rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 3051, inscribed with the owner’s name and bearing a poem referring to its use.