Lot 238. A rhinoceros horn libaton cup, 17th Century; 6.5cm H, 13cm diameter. Estimate: £10,000.00 - £15,000.00. © Chiswick Auctions.

Well-hollowed the rounded bowl rising to an everted foliate rim, naturalistically carved to the exterior with reticulated branches bearing curved leaves and a pomegranate fruit, enclosing the body and forming the feet of the bowl, the body further incised with leaves extending over the rim to the interior of the bowl.

Lot 237. A rhinoceros horn libaton cup, Qing Dynasty, 18th Century; 5cm H, 8cm diameter at the rim. Estimate: £5,000.00 - £8,000.00. © Chiswick Auctions.

The exterior alternately adorned with circular and bracket-lobed cartouches of diaper design, the horn of an attractive honey brown colour, supported on a wood stand carved and pierced as lotus branches. (2)

Provenance: Collection of Frederick Lindsay Lloyd (1866 – 1940) prior to 1895.

Note: For a rhinoceros horn cup with similar ‘earth’ diaper decoration from the Chester Beatty Library collection see Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, 1999, pl 175.