The source of the subject of the ducks is a line of poetry from the first two hepta-syllabic jueju composed by Su Shi, the famous Song poet, calligrapher and statesman more popularly known as Su Dongpo (1037-1101), entitled 'Two Poems on Hui Chong's "Views of a Spring Rover at Dusk"'. Hui Chong lived in the Northern Song period and was renowned both as a poet and as a painter of river scenes. Danqiusheng, whose style is referred to by Ding as the source of his inspiration, is Ke Jiusi, the late Yuan dynasty painter.

Erzhong is the zi of the scholar-official, painter, calligrapher and professional seal-carver, Ding Shangyu, from Tongzhou, modern-day Nantong in Jiangsu province. He was based in Beijing during his early career, serving as an official with the Qing government.

Ding ranks as the pre-eminent master of inside-painted snuff bottles. Ding's range of subject matter was fairly wide and even among his favourite landscapes, no two are ever alike. He re-invented the composition with every painting. He did repeat subjects from time to time, however, and both on the present example are found elsewhere. The cockerel on a rocky bank appeared several times during his early career, sometimes with chicks and sometimes without: one from the Trojan Collection dated 1898; one in the Ann Kreuger Collection dated 1899; in the Hugh Moss exhibition of 1970; and another from 1908 illustrated in Gems of Chinese Snuff Bottles, no. 356. Only one other bottle with ducks is illustrated by Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, no. 262, although it is a different composition without any indication that it illustrates the same poem.