Lot 764. A rhinoceros horn 'chilong' libation cup, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 HKD. Lot sold 275,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's. 

the flaring vessel skilfully carved on the exterior with gnarled branches and bamboo shoots forming the handle on one side, further rendered with lingzhi blooms of varying sizes and clambering chilong, the patina of a warm reddish-brown colour - h. 7.5 cm, 3 in. 

Notes: A rhinoceros horn cup similarly carved in low relief, but with two chilong clambering amongst stems of leafy bamboo and lingzhi fungus, was sold in our London rooms, 11th May 2011, lot 24.

A carved rhinoceros horn 'chilong' libation cup, 17th century. Lot sold 91,250 GBP at Sotheby's London, 11th May 2011, lot 24. Photo: Sotheby's. 

Cf. my post Rhinoceros horn carving @ Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, 11 May 11

The chilong is possibly one of the most important and widely used animals in the horn carvers’ repertoire. Compare a cup in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, illustrated in Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros horn Carving in China, London, 1999, p. 178, pl. 234, where the author notes that the dragon would act as the beneficent ‘bringer of rain’.