Page 273 - Fine Chinese Art Bonhams London May 2018

287 Y
A LARGE RHINOCEROS HORN ‘RED CLIFF’ LIBATION CUP Provenance: an important European private collection
17th/18th century
The horn of dark chocolate tone, crisply carved to the exterior with three 來源： 重要歐洲私人收藏
sages seated on a sampan steered by an attendant along a rapid stream,
in admiration of the inscription carved on the cliff reading ‘Shangao The inscription on the cliff reads: ‘山高月小, 水落石出’, which may
Yuexiao; Shuiluo Shichu’, all below cloud scrolls and amidst rocky be translated as ‘From below the mountains seem high and the
outcrops borne with shrubs and gnarled wutong and pine trees forming moon small; when the water recedes the rocks emerge’. This line
the handle, the interior incised with grooves imitating rocky surfaces. comes from Su Shi’s (1037-1101) famous poem ‘Ode to the Red
17.4cm (6 7/8in) long. Cliff’, inspired after an excursion to this famous scenic spot. The
event itself became a popular motif on rhinoceros horn libation cups
of the late Ming/ early Qing dynasty. Other rhinorceros horn libation
£12,000 - 15,000 cups with the ‘Red Cliff’ motifs, 17th century, are illustrated by T.Fok,
CNY110,000 - 130,000 Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong,
1999, nos.132 and 133.
十七/十八世紀 犀角夜遊赤壁盃

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