1780-1850

The subject of a scholar riding a donkey, sometimes followed by an attendant holding a branch of prunus, has been variously interpreted. Ka Bo Tsang has identified this particular figure as the Tang-dynasty scholar, poet and recluse, Meng Haoran, who was reputed to have admired prunus blossoms. For further discussion, see Ka Bo Tsang, "Who is the Rider on the Donkey?", JICSBS, Summer, 1994, pp. 4-16, fig. 14. Another possibility is that the figure represents the fifth-century poet Lu Kai, from the Song State (AD 420-479) of the Southern Dynasties period, who is shown traveling in Jiangnan accompanied by his attendant who carries a branch of prunus blossoms. Lu sends these blossoms hundreds of miles north to his friend the historian Fan Ye (AD 398-445) in Chang'an with a poem, the last line of which reads: "I send you merely a branch of spring."

A similar cameo agate snuff bottle was sold at Christie's New York, 13 September 2012, lot 1125.