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2 avril 2014

A carved rhinoceros horn archaistic 'chilong' libation cup, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795)

A carved rhinoceros horn archaistic 'chilong' libation cup, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795)

A carved rhinoceros horn archaistic 'chilong' libation cup, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period (1736-1795)

Lot 3015. A carved rhinoceros horn archaistic 'chilong' libation cup, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period  (1736-1795); 16.7 cm., 6 5/8 in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,360,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's

deftly carved with wide flaring sides, carved in low relief around the exterior with a frieze of taotie masks against a finely defined leiwen ground, one side further carved in openwork with a pair of clambering chilong forming the handle, the larger one with sharp claws and a bifurcated tail peeking over the key-fret decorated rim, the horn of a warm chocolate brown tone, wood and metal stand.
Provenance: Collection of Kenyon V. Painter, Cleveland, Ohio & Arusha, Tanzania, circa 1910s-40s, thence by descent.
Sotheby's New York, 18th September 2007, lot 6.

Note: Rhinoceros horn cups carved with a combination of archaistic decoration and mythological creatures were favoured for their association with and reference to ancient artefacts that were historically collected by the nobility in China. This fashion for archaism first arose during the Song dynasty and resulted in the production of pattern manuals and books which contained designs that were widely copied on works of art in different media. A cup of this type, but of oval section, from the collection of Thomas Fok, is published in Thomas Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 142.

Jan Chapman, in The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pp. 147-56, illustrates a number of comparable examples which she lists as belonging to the ‘archaistic decoration’ category; for example, a cup from the Avery Brundage collection in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, pl. 179; and another in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, pl. 185; and a third in the Staatliches Museum für Volkekunde, Munich, pl. 184.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 april 2014
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