Litterature: Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pl. 51.
Thomas Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 74. 

The present carving of a log-raft with the figure of Zhang Qian is a particularly fine example of vessels belonging to a special small group of rhinoceros horn carvings. This piece is also exceptional because it is the only known example without a spout and thus could not have been intended as a wine container as they generally are. Its function is a matter of speculation, but judging from the depth of the interior of the raft and its shape, it may have been made as a brush washer for the scholar’s desk. The carver has used a fine piece of Asian horn with an exceptionally thick lip which he skilfully carved into the figure of the famous Han dynasty explorer and official envoy Zhang Qian. Zhang, often depicted like a Daoist immortal, was the first official diplomat to bring back information about Central Asia to the Han court. According to legend, his travels were in search of the source of the Yangzi River, the origin of the Milky Way, and the means of making wine from grapes. Hence the popularity for making wine-pouring vessels using this subject matter. On the present piece, he is rendered with a smiling face gazing up in content with his open book resting on his lap. Perhaps he has been drinking from the double-gourd container filled with wine which hangs from a tree branch beside him. The carver has manipulated the rest of the horn into the shape of a long hollow tree trunk to form Zhang’s raft. Log-rafts of this type are technically amongst the most challenging and complex forms to create. Jan Chapman in The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pp.101-105, explains in detail the work involved with the making of rafts and concludes that ‘it is scarcely likely that any but the most skilled carver would have attempted them’. 

The largest single collection of rhinoceros horn raft vessels can be found in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, which has four examples, one included ibid., pl. 47. Others can be found in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, which interestingly shows Zhang with a fly whisk in his hand, published ibid., pl. 48; three in the Palace Museum, Beijing, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Shanghai, 2001, pls. 118-20; and a further raft in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, illustrated in Jan Chapman, ‘The Use of Manipulation in Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Cups’, Arts of Asia, July-August 1982, fig. 6. Another raft, now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, bearing an Imperial Qianlong inscription datable to 1782, was exhibited on loan by the then Chinese Government in the famous Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition in 1935; see Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Government Exhibits for the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London, Beijing, 1936, no. 60 (or no. 2948 in the standard London version published) and also included in the exhibition Jiangxin yu xiangong. Ming Qing diaoke zhan / Uncanny Ingenuity and Celestial Feats: The Carvings of Ming and Qing Dynasties,National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2011, cat. no. 30.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Oct 2013 -www.sothebys.com