A Bamboo 'Pine Tree' Libation Cup Late Ming / Early Qing Dynasty

naturalistically carved as a tree trunk, decorated in openwork with gnarled branches stemming from the base on one end and meandering across the vessel, large pine blossoms borne on the knotty branches covered with irregular rings, the other end with pronounced burls amidst further irregular rings dispersed on the bark, the interior with a metal liner extending to the rim, the countersunk base with a concentric ring

For a closely related rhinoceros horn libation cup, carved with pine, in the Staatliches Museum Für Volkerkunde, Munich, see Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, p. 260, pl. 377.