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Lot Essay
Song Yu, lived at the Court of King Xiang of Chu in the 3rd century B.C.
For a very similar bottle by Gui Xianggu dated 1897, see a full page advertisement for Y.F. Yang & Co., illustrated in the I.C.S.B.S., Journal, Autumn, 1994, inside cover, with an almost identical inscription to the reverse but with the sisters set in a slightly different landscape setting.
The subject of the Qiao Sisters on inside-painted bottles was made popular by Ma Shaoxuan. During 1896 and 1897 he returned to the subject many times. For a full discussion of the subject see Ma Zengshan, Inside-Painted Snuff Bottle Artist Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939), Maryland, 1997, pp. 32-35.
Another bottle of the same subject dated 1908 by Meng (Tzu-Shao) from the Alex S. Cussons Collection is illustrated by Hugh M. Moss, Chinese Snuff Bottles, No. 1, London, 1966 (second impression), pp. 26-27, fig. 11
For another bottle depicting Opera scenes by the same artist and a discussion of the dating of his works, see Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 658-659, no. 430.
See also another dated 1897 from the Charles V. Swain Collection illustrated by Gayle Gray Laverlochère in an article entitled 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Source of Snuff Bottle Subjects', I.C.S.B.S., Journal, Spring, 1988, p. 13, fig. 7d.
For a very similar bottle by Gui Xianggu dated 1897, see a full page advertisement for Y.F. Yang & Co., illustrated in the I.C.S.B.S., Journal, Autumn, 1994, inside cover, with an almost identical inscription to the reverse but with the sisters set in a slightly different landscape setting.
The subject of the Qiao Sisters on inside-painted bottles was made popular by Ma Shaoxuan. During 1896 and 1897 he returned to the subject many times. For a full discussion of the subject see Ma Zengshan, Inside-Painted Snuff Bottle Artist Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939), Maryland, 1997, pp. 32-35.
Another bottle of the same subject dated 1908 by Meng (Tzu-Shao) from the Alex S. Cussons Collection is illustrated by Hugh M. Moss, Chinese Snuff Bottles, No. 1, London, 1966 (second impression), pp. 26-27, fig. 11
For another bottle depicting Opera scenes by the same artist and a discussion of the dating of his works, see Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1995, pp. 658-659, no. 430.
See also another dated 1897 from the Charles V. Swain Collection illustrated by Gayle Gray Laverlochère in an article entitled 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Source of Snuff Bottle Subjects', I.C.S.B.S., Journal, Spring, 1988, p. 13, fig. 7d.