A rare and finely carved rhinoceros horn vessel


17th century, 'Xiao Yu' two-character seal markDeftly carved around the exterior of the body with archaistic taotie masks, interspersed between bands of C-scrolls, surmounted by three sinuous chilong with long bifurcated tails in high relief clambering up to the rim, one crawling through the handle decorated with archaistic motifs on a leiwen ground, the foot encircled with quatrefoil beads joined by a circular band, the horn of light caramel tone. 12.1cm (4 3/4in) high.
|十七世紀 犀角仿古饕餮紋蟠螭耳盃「孝玉」篆書刻款Provenance: Maurice (1853-1922) and Marguerite Sulzbach (1863-1945), and thence by descent來源： Maurice(1853-1922)及Marguerite Sulzbach(1863-1945)伉儷收藏，並由後人保存迄今The present lot was inspired in form by archaic bronze ritual vessels, gu, but differs in having a spout and handle. It is very rare to find a rhinoceros horn libation cup of similar form. The vessel is also rare for bearing an unrecorded two-character seal mark in archaic sealscript to the base reading 'Xiao Yu' (孝玉).A rhinoceros horn cup with related animal taotie design, late Ming dynasty, is illustrated in Ming and Qing Chinese Arts from the C.P.Lin Collection, Hong Kong, 2014, pp.282-283, no.167.Compare with a related rhinoceros horn libation cup, 17th/18th century, which was sold at Bonhams London, 11 November 2010, lot 471.