Page 160 - Fine Chinese Works of Art Bonhams Hong Kong May 2018

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A RARE ‘SCHOLAR AND PINE’ RHINOCEROS HORN LIBATION The present rhinoceros horn libation cup with its scene of a scholar
CUP in contemplative ease gazing at the pine trees is imbued with poetic
17th century elegance and the refined taste of the 17th century literati. The inscribed
Expertly carved around the rim with angular rocky outcrops, a lone five-character couplet adds to the bucolic element and emphasises the
sage sits on the ground by a swirling stream flowing through the rocky ancient tranquility of the pine:
crevices of the cup and into the base, all amongst wutong and pine
trees, a gnarled twisted pine trunk rising to the top of the cliff to form 松石偏宜古
the handle, exquisitely carved branches, vines and pine needles climb 藤蘿不計年
over the rim into the cup, a poetic inscription carved onto the cliff-face,
the horn of dark chocolate-brown tone. ‘Reclining behind a pine is suitably ancient,
14.2cm (5 1/2in) long The vines take no regard of the years’

HK$250,000 - 350,000 The pine was long seen as a symbol of the scholar: sturdy, rooted in
US$32,000 - 45,000 tradition and braving the harshest winter. In the tumultuous 17th century
during the Ming-Qing transition, the literati idealised the state of rustic
seclusion from Court politics.
十七世紀 犀角雕山水人物圖杯
陽文「松石偏宜古，藤蘿不計年」款 Compare with two related rhinoceros horn libaton cups, 17th century,
the first carved with a solitary figure of a sage fishing, and the second
Provenance: carved with scholarly figures by a stream, illustrated by T.Fok,
An important European private collection, and thence by descent Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong,
1999, pls.150 and 151.
來源：
重要歐洲私人收藏，後由家族繼承 See also a related, slightly larger, rhinoceros horn libation cup, 17th
century, which was sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 30 May 2017, lot 131.

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