Rhinoceros horn carved bird cup

[Rhinoceros horn carving bird-shaped cup]

Rhinoceros horn carving bird-shaped cup, clear, 5.4 cm high, 10.3-7.1 cm caliber, 3.5-2.2 cm foot diameter
The cup is in a bucket shape, its mouth is nearly elliptical when viewed from the top, one end is slightly narrow, which is a flow, and the other end is slightly wide, which is a tail. The edge of the mouth is skimmed outward, and an obvious broken edge can be seen on the inner wall to separate from the cup body. The decoration on the outer wall is mainly shallow relief, and the content can not be understood at first glance. However, if the cup body is turned over, you can see that the whole is a bird shape at a glance. The eyes, beaks, feathers and feathers are distinct. The bird head is the bottom foot of the cup, and the bird crown is the tip of the cup foot. In order to adapt to the cup shape, the bird’s posture is in the shape of converging wings and shrugging shoulders, and its tail is in a stream. Although the pattern description is impressionistic, it is unexpected. In the beak of the bird, there is also a trimming-tailed monster with a slender body, twisting and wriggling, as if struggling
In the old folk customs, there was the so-called “five poisons”, and the scorpion, snake, centipede, toad, gecko and so on were regarded as the representatives of harmful poisonous insects, while the chicken was just a good bird to control the five poisons, so the scene of the chicken pecking the five poisons in the traditional decoration became an auspicious pattern of exorcism and detoxication. The strange patterns depicted here may be the romantic treatment of such themes for display and play


犀角雕鸟形杯倒扣状