Lot 1270 Dα

There are four marks at the foot arranged at four points of a square indicating possible former legs, such as on ding-shaped horn carvings (T. Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong 1999, no. 45) making an interesting combination of the jue and ding vessels.
With references to archaic bronzes, typical for the 18th century, this cup also features a somewhat restrained, controlled central decorative band with vertical flanges, contrasting effectively with the more expressive handle, comparable with other examples by this artist. Although the volute decoration is seldom seen on rhinoceros cups, it can be found on jade of the Warring States period. See a jade gong vessel dated 1650-1750 illustrated in Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Later Chinese Jades, 2007, p. 166, fig. 153.
The carver Hu Xingyue is known only by his varying four-character seal mark, no biographical information on him is known, (J. Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Carving in China, London 1999, p. 129).
In her book Jan Chapman gives an 18th century dating for Hu Xingyue, whilst signed examples in the regulated Palace archives suggest that the artist must already have been working before the Qing dynasty, (for example no. 134 in Bamboo, Wood and Ivory Carvings, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, vol. 44, p. 152).
To date, a number of rhinoceros horn libation cups bearing this mark Hu Xingyue zuo have come to light, numbering approximately thirteen cups, the majority of which are in museum collections (Palace Museum, Beijing, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam).

清 犀角雕仿古螭龍紋盃 《胡星岳作》篆書款
可比 霍滿堂《中國犀角雕刻珍賞》，香港 1999年，圖27
來源：德國杜塞爾多夫私人收藏