Carved with small figures sailing a boat on an undulating sea, by a walled pavilion, among rockwork and trees.

Provenance

The collection of Eldridge Reeves Fenimore Johnson (1899-1986), likely acquired before 1937.
Thence by descent in the family.

Note

E. R. F. Johnson was a noted explorer, yachtsman and researcher. He was a pioneer in the development of underwater photography and had close ties with the University of Pennsylvania, where a collection of his photographs are preserved. His father was Eldridge Reeves Johnson (1867-1945), the founder of the Victor Talking Machine Company, later RCA. It is very possible this may have been originally acquired by the elder E. R. Johnson, given that he gave Chinese works of art to the University of Pennsylvania Museum in 1920 and 1927, including the large crystal ball said to have belonged to the Dowager Empress Cixi, the pair of carved stone reliefs of the favorite horses of the Tang Emperor Taizong, and numerous jade and coral carvings.

For similar "landscape" cups, see the example dated to the Kangxi period (1662-1722), sold at Christie’s, London, November 8, 2010, lot 54 and another example, dated to the 18th century, in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1908, accession number: 08.212.2. See also the examples in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, dating form the late Ming to early Qing dynasties, illustrated in "The Complete Collection of treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 44, Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 128, p. 142; no. 145, p. 167; no. 146 (from the Qing Court Collection), pp. 168-169; no. 147 (from the Qing Court Collection), pp. 170-171; and no. 148 (from the Qing Court Collection), pp. 172-173.

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