According to relevant information, the rhino horn cups of the Ming and Qing dynasties currently collected in the museum are only about four or five thousand, and the folk collection is estimated to be more than 10,000 pieces, and the other carvings are at most about 10,000 pieces. Before the 80s of last century, domestic collection activities had not yet risen, and the artistic value of rhino horn carvings had not been widely valued by society, and many rhino horn cups were even crushed for medicinal use.
In the late 80s of last century, the domestic art market gradually emerged, and the artistic value of rhino horn cup was gradually valued by those who knew it. This shows how precious the rhino horn cup that has survived to this day is. Especially in the late 90s of the last century, rhinoceros was included in the protection regulations, and new African rhino products were also banned by customs of various countries, and the implementation of these policies made old rhino horn carvings highly sought after in the antique and auction markets. In the early 90s of last century, a Ming and Qing rhino horn cup more than 10 centimeters tall was sold for only more than 10,000 yuan in the domestic market, and the market valuation has doubled in recent years.
It is said that the old rhino horn carvings have increased rapidly in recent years, but there are indeed some rhino horn carvings that are underestimated by the market and are worth collecting. For example, at the art auction held by the Shanghai auction house in late December 2010, there were some small devices made of rhino horn, with a starting price of only 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan.
Lao Mo suggested that when Tibetans decide to collect old rhino horn carvings, they should first understand and familiarize themselves with the various elements of rhino horn carvings to prevent buying forgeries and imitations. Rhinoceros has Asian rhinoceros and African rhino, rhino horn is the horn born on the nose bone, formed by hair keratinization, there are pure black, pure yellow, black brown, dark brown, etc., pure yellow color like gold, very beautiful. The rhino horn is hard and fine, with thin strips of bamboo silk in the longitudinal section and fine caviar-like particles called caviar-like grains or millet grains in cross-section. The crushed can smell the aroma like bezoar, and it does not smell when burned with fire.
The value of a rhino horn carving, in addition to the material, also depends on the production age, the carving genre and whether it is from a famous master's handwriting. If it comes from a famous artist, its value is often higher. In addition, the value of Asian rhino horn is much higher than that of African rhino horn. With the emergence of domestic rhino horn carving collection boom in recent years, there are more fake rhino horn carvings on the market. At present, in the major domestic antique collection markets, you can often see some stalls selling "rhino horn cups", with prices ranging from a few hundred yuan to several thousand yuan.
In fact, most of these so-called rhino horn carvings are imitations, and some are imitated with the horns or resins of other animals such as cattle, buffalo, yaks, etc. Counterfeiters cut open the horns, buffalo horns, and yak horns, scalded layer by layer, and then cooked them into fake rhino horn carvings to deceive collectors.
You can zoom in to see the enlarged picture of the genuine product sorted out by Lao Mo
Let's take a look at the legal old rhino horn collected by the author Mocao.
This article is original by Mocao, more secrets about the old horn eagle, welcome to the comment area to participate in the discussion!