a rhinoceros horn libation cup Qing dynasty, Kangxi period

the horn of deep reddish-brown tone, the widely splayed mouth tapering to the truncated base, finely carved in high-relief with a lyrical rocky landscape set with pine, paulownia and flowering trees, the reticulated handle in the form of two thick pine branches bearing clusters of needles flowing over the rim and into the interior

The cup is in very good condition and the carving is well executed. The interior is a little dry. The base plug is missing. There is a small 1/4 inch long old chip to the base. Some of the area around one side of the rim has small polished indentations that appear to now be part of the rock landscape, but were likely small chips smoothed over. Two small insect bores beneath the rim underneath rockwork. One hole to a pine needle at the handle, possibly from insects.
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Compare a 'pine forest' rhinoceros horn libation cup, formerly in the collects ion of Kenyon V. Painter, sold in these rooms, 19th March 2007, lot 380. A similar inscribed cup from the same collects ion was also sold in these rooms, 18th September 2007, lot 9. A libation cup with the pine motif, of a similarly dark tone, in The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, is illustrated in Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, fig. 229, p. 175. Another in the collects ion of Mr. Franklin Chow, is illustrated in Thomas Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 121.