Oblong cup with dragon handle

Incised on the sides with a panel of addorsed (back-to-back) dragons topped by a band of confronting kui dragons, this cup stands on a low rectangular pedestal foot. A dragon handle carved almost in the round clings to one of the short sides, and an animal mask? emerges from the other.

The shallow, abstract lines of the incised decoration allude to jade work from the Zhou dynasty, while the more sculptural treatments of the handle and mask evoke medieval and later periods. The eclectic mix of two- and three-dimensional techniques suggests that the carver aimed at a synthesis of archaic styles, with no one prototype in mind. By the seventeenth century such pastiches of past styles were common practice across all art media, from painting to the decorative arts. Exploiting the natural color variations within the stone, the carver highlighted the dragon in lighter green and dramatized the lines of incision against the dark brown panel.