The Chinese antiques market continues to grow as evidenced by
the recent Antiques Roadshow episode that featured a set of
rhinoceros libation cups valued at over a million dollars. This
morning as I flipped through the channels I came across the
Today show and saw a plug for a segment with the owner of the
cups. Given all the media attention I thought it might be
appropriate to talk a little about why they are so valued and
some of the symbolism involved with rhino horns in Chinese
culture. The Penn Museum actually has several carved horns in
its Asian section. Three from China and one from Nepal. The two
pictured here were collected in the 1890′s and are some of the
earliest pieces to come into the collection. The horns are said
to be able to detect poison in liquids and are also used as
medicine (although this is a rather dubious claim). The
rhinoceros was also once found in Sichuan province but has since
been hunted to extinction. The first horn (C374) features a
simple landscape scene devoid of any humans