A rare rhinoceros horn figure of Guanyin, Late Ming-Early Qing dynasty, 17th century. Photo Sotheby's
well carved as a seated Guanyin with loose robes elegantly draped over her corpulent body revealing her chest with a headdress and her long locks of hair sitting neatly atop her head, beneath her revealing a network of tessellated wutong leaves, her head tilting slightly downwards with her eyes closed contemplatively, holding tasselled Buddhist prayer beads with her left hand below her bangle-adorned wrist, her right elbow resting on an armrest while holding a ruyi against her torso with her hand, the horn of a deep chestnut tone lightening to an amber colour near the tip, wood stand; 15.5 cm., 6 1/8 in. Estimate 800,000 — 1,200,000 HKD
Note: The present rhinoceros horn carving of Guanyin is a fine and rare example of late-Ming figural carvings in this medium. The broad proportions of Guanyin's body and the wide leafy base upon which she sits, her robes spreading over it, suggest that it was made from a whole horn. The style of using the wide base of the horn for carving figures continued into the Kangxi period.
A closely related example was sold at Christie’s London, 10th April 1973, lot 282, and is possibly the one illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji [Complete series on Chinese art], vol. 11, Beijing, 1987, pl. 137. Other examples of superbly carved rhinoceros horn figures of seated Guanyin include two published in Thomas Fok, Connoisseurship of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, Hong Kong, 1999, pls. 75 and 77, from the collections of the Harvard University Art Museum and the Shanghai Museum respectively; and another sold in our New York rooms, 6th December 1989, lot 58. See also a carving of a seated Guanyin pouring balm from her vase while a small boy tries to touch the liquid, in the collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., published in Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, pl. 334 (right).
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Apr 2014 -www.sothebys.com