Lot 657. A large rhinoceros horn 'Squirrel And Grape' libation cup, Qing Dynasty, 17th-18th century; 17.6 cm., 6 3/4 in. Estimate 800,000 — 1,200,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,480,000 HKD (190,890 USD). Photo Sotheby's

intricately carved as a cup-shaped blossom with petals forming the cup, the exterior detailed in varying degrees of relief with gnarled vines issuing large leaves and clusters of plump grapes, all enveloping the sides and issuing from the base comprising further leaves and clusters of grapes, one squirrel confronting its young on the exterior of the cup near a thick vine upon which a further squirrel climbs, the interior carved with further leafy vines issuing clusters of grapes and tendrils, as well as three further squirrels, one of them perched on the sides while the other two play with one another, the horn of a dark brown tone with hints of honey-brown towards the rim, wood stand

Note: This libation cup, decorated with finely rendered veins and richly laden with large succulent grapes is an unusual example of a small group of rhinoceros horn carvings decorated with a fruit design.

The fruiting grapevine as a subject was especially popular in the Ming dynasty, and was frequently painted on early Ming blue and white wares such as the dish recovered from the waste heaps of the Ming Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen included in the exhibition Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pl. 44. Grapes are also depicted with squirrels forming a popular motif that represent the wish for many children and ceaseless generations of sons and grandsons (songshu putao).

For a similar rhinoceros horn cup with a 'Grape and Squirrel' theme, see the exhibition One Man's Taste. Treasures from the Lakeside Pavilion, Galleries of the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1988, cat. no. R13, from the collection of Edward T. Chow. Another rhinoceros horn cup decorated with the grape motif from the Edward T. Chow Collection was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th April 2011, lot 2716. See two further similar cups, one in the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich, illustrated in Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999. pl. 222; and another in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, illustrated in Jan Chapman, 'Rhinoceros Horn Carvings and their Buffalo Horn Imitations', Orientations, January 1988, p. 41, fig.1. Two cups decorated with grapes, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, are published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Shanghai, 2001, pls.114 and 130, the latter made by using a whole horn. Compare also a grape vine cup in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, published in Craig Clunas, Chinese Carving, London, 1996, fig. 35; one sold at Christie's New York, 22nd March 2007, lot 154; and one from the Estate of Cyrus Jasperse, sold in our New York rooms, 13th June 1979, lot 133.

Sotheby's. Playthings From The Collection of Edward T. Chow Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Collections Chinese Art Through the Eye of Sakamoto Gor - Asian Lacquer, Hong Kong, 27 may 2014