Help Identifying

Has anyone seen anything like this before? What is it or any idea on the markings on it?
I found something similar online, a Chinese liberation cup on square stand, but no info on that one.

 

Lens image search found these two square cups. One says carved ox horn and the second one (I think) is implying rhinoceros horn without saying it. I can't vouch for any of the descriptions, just showing similar items that I found online so far.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284373900384


https://www.carters.com.au/index.cfm/index/3229-religious-objects-oriental-libation-cups/

 

Thanks for the insight and feedback

 

Welcome to Antiquers, @gouldcx . I see you joined a few weeks ago, so I maybe a bit late.

 

From a previous discussion about rhino vs cow horn on the forum:

"Cattle horns grow over a bone core, in a series of nesting cones. They are hollow for most of their length, with just a small portion of solid material at the tip. Inside, at the center of the tip, there is an "eye" pattern created by the overlapping series of cones. The walls of cattle and bison horns are relatively thin, as support is provided by the bony core. The base of the horn tends to have a smooth circumference, round, or elliptical, or triangular, but not wavy and irregular.

Rhinoceros horns do not grow over a bone core. Rather, they grow like bundles of hair fibers extending upward from the skin surface. There is only a shallow hollow at the base of the horn. This would be enlarged by carving for the traditional use as a drinking cup. Because of this hair-like structure, a cross section of Rhino horn will not show patterns of growth rings like the stacked cones of cow horns. Instead, under sufficient magnification, it will show a collection of tubes. These tubes are about .5mm in diameter, hence the need for significant magnification.

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/carved-horn-2.50906/#post-2313069

When reviewing information on rhino horn, I came across an article describing a potential method of making fake rhinoceros horn from horse hair. An abstract of the article describes the process:

"Demand for rhino horn is driving poaching with devastating effect for the few individuals left of the few species surviving from this once numerous, widespread and cosmopolitan clade of pachyderms. We bundled together tail hairs of the rhino’s ubiquitous near relative, the horse, to be glued together with a bespoke matrix of regenerated silk mimicking the collagenous component of the real horn. This approach allowed us to fabricate composite structures that were confusingly similar to real rhino horn in look, feel and properties. Spectral and thermal FT-IR, DSC and TGA analysis demonstrated the similar chemical composition and thermo-mechanical properties between the natural and the faux horns."

And you can read the whole article here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-52527-5

The cup that @gouldcx has posted does have features that look like rhinoceros horn, particularly the fibrous texture. But if you look at all of the photos on the ebay listing that @LauraGarnet02 linked to, the carving and texts appear to be identical (unless they are in fact the same cup). They look like they might have been pressed in a mold.

If you search for "horn libation cup" on ebay, you will see many types of "ox horn" cups coming out of China. Some make the effort to more closely mimic the shape of rhinoceros horn, in addition to the fibrous texture. But they appear to be mass produced. Compare these 2:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1441191629...uBdq99tf5HW1K07ZrLY+biPELo7n|tkp:BFBM7oaf87lg

https://www.ebay.com/itm/393621988319?hash=item5ba5b2e3df:g:8GcAAOSw4Q1hYt18

The sellers do not misrepresent the cups as being rhino horn (which would be illegal to sell), and do not demand the prices that genuine rhino horn would command. But they are probably making a tidy profit, and will fool some people into thinking they are buying a much more valuable object. Yet another type of fake to be wary of.

 

I’ve found that anytime there is text in the photos of Chinese based sellers of supposedly old looking Chinese items they are fakes. In your links there is a username or something in black text bottom left of the photos. This is present in hundreds of sellers photos of fraudulent Chinese antiques I’ve found.