Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 6. (Budapest, 1979)

KÁRPÁTI, Andrea: „Blanc de Chine" porcelain in the collection of the Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts

14. RHINOCEROS HORN CUP 15. RHINOCEROS HORN CUP ununderstandable for them, to get rid of the effects of mass production and regain their originality. Before ending our account on the blanc de Chine wares of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts, mention must be made of the vessels, which besides the statuettes, constitute another valuable part of our collection. The most interesting of them are the „rhinoceros horn cups". Why this from was adopted at Te-hua, is a mystery — Jenyns believes that carving of rhinoceros horn was a local activity here, and the shape was felt to confer some of the properties of the material. The true rhinoceros horn cup is terminating at the point, and was often used as a wedding cup. The bride and the bridegroom held one of them, which, having been filled with wine, could not be put down until it had been drained. The standard rhinoceros cups are roughly oval, with wavy mounth and tapering to an oval foot, to which sometimes a flat oval ring is attached to make the cup stand better. The body of the vessel is traditionally divided into two ,,spheres" — the top portion of the cup is the ,,sky", the bottom portion being the ,,earth" or the „sea". Two of our cups bear this conventional decoration. Though the elements of both compositions are almost the same, the arrangement and execution of them differs greatly in quality. The maker of the first piece (Inv.Nr: 5367, fig. 15), creates a unity of the two spheres. The movement of the serpent — representing the sphere of heaven — and the deer — symbolysing earth — connects the two portions of the composition. On the other cup (Inv.-Nr: 5366, fig. 16), the figures of the Taoist iconography are used only as foot and border decoration, placed one after the other in two parallel lines. The maker of the first cup makes good use of the widely flaring wavy mouth rim, as clouds upon the sky, the other creates a decorative borderline 107