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Lot Essay
Ye began painting his well-known children subjects in 1896 and continued to do so throughout his career. The subject conveys a desire for male progeny, and carries a blessing for abundant descendents. It is interesting to note that the cricket "cages" are of a particularly northern variety, made up of a broad, cylindrical container made of fired clay with a heavy, flat lid. Another bottle by Ye Zhongsan with this motif is in the Bloch Collection, illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 4, Inside-Painted, no. 510. Others are in the collection of Edward Choate O'Dell, illustrated by J. Ford in Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Edward Choate O'Dell Collection, p. 73, no. 194; R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The White Wings Collection, p. 260, no. 179; and C. Lawrence, Miniature Masterpieces from the Middle Kingdom. The Monimar Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, pp. 284-5, no. 136. Another example, dated to 1897, is illustrated in the catalogue, Hugh M. Moss Limited, An Exhibition of Chinese Snuff Bottles, June 1970, p. 88, no. 367, where it is noted that the seal Huayin is mentioned by S. Cammann in "Chinese Inside Painted Snuff Bottles and Their Makers" in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies HJAS 20 (1957), pp. 295-326, where the author states that this seal only appears on works by Ye Zhongsan himself, and never on his son's paintings.