Tan Xin Pei was a celebrated actor of Chinese drama in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The part of General Huang Zhong was one of his most famous roles. For further discussion see The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Journal, Spring, 1988, an article entitled "Romance of the Three Kingdoms Source of Snuff Bottle Subjects" by Gayle Gray Laverlochere, pp. 18 and 19, figs. 11b and 11c. For other similarly decorated bottles see Bob C. Stevens, The Collector's Book of Snuff Bottles, New York, 1976, col. pl. 847; and Hugh M. Moss, Snuff Bottles of China, London, 1971, col. pl. 137, no. 349

For a photograph of Tan Xin Pei dressed in the role of the General see The International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Journal, December, 1978, an article entitled "China's Republican Period History as Mirrored in Portrait Bottles" by Emily Byrne Curtis, figs. 48, 49 and 50