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Lot Essay
Erzhong is the zi of the scholar-official, and professional painter, calligrapher, bamboo carver and seal-carver Ding Shangyu, from Tongzhou, modern-day Nantong in Jiangsu province. He was based in Beijing during his early career, and served as an official in the Qing government. The Mountain Cottage of Seventeen Plum Trees was likely Ding's home during his official posting to the Eastern Feudatory Administrative Office, where he began his tour in 1904. This studio name appears on only one other known bottle, decorated with horses and a still-life and dated to the second month of 1906, while a shortened version of the name appears on a bottle formerly in the collections of Erik Hancock and Hugh Moss which was painted with documents on both sides and dated autumn, 1904.
This bottle ranks among Ding's masterpieces, and is exceptional not only for its unusual subject, but also because it is painted in crystal, the vast majority of Ding's work being painted in glass bottles. Like so many of Ding's paintings, this bottle is dedicated to a particular individual, but what is not clear is whether Xuxuan, the Provincial Governor, ordered it as patron, or received it as a gift from Ding while he was his superior.
The subject of Shoulao on a stag is an extremely unusual one for Ding and he notes that he copied it from an album by the famous Ming artist Tang Yin (1470-1523). The documents on the reverse are a group of ancient rubbings and a painting, and are the sort of documents that would be highly valued by the literati. The painting of the pine tree appears on other bottles where Ding noted that it was based on a painting by the Xuanhe Emperor (the reign title adopted between 1119 and 1125 by the Song Emperor and accomplished painter Huizong).
Han-dynasty tile-ends were highly valued, not only because they bore archaic inscriptions from a golden age of China's past, but also because they made ideal ink-stones, being made from a hard pottery ideally suited to the grinding of ink. Here, the rubbing of the tile-end bears Ding's seal, an artistic conceit suggesting to Ding's audience that he himself had made the rubbing.
A glass bottle by Ding dated to 1897 and painted with a miniature painting of peony and rockwork beneath two rubbings is illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The White Wings Collection, p. 244. no. 418. Kleiner also illustrates from the collection, p. 262, no. 181, a glass bottle by Ye Zhongsan the Elder dated to 1899 which is painted on each side with a collection of scattered rubbings and documents. See also two bottles painted by Ding with scenes of Shou Lao shown reclining against his recumbent deer illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 4, Inside Painted, nos. 545 and 546, where further details of Ding's career are given, and many more of his works are published. Both of the Bloch bottles are dated to 1897.
This bottle ranks among Ding's masterpieces, and is exceptional not only for its unusual subject, but also because it is painted in crystal, the vast majority of Ding's work being painted in glass bottles. Like so many of Ding's paintings, this bottle is dedicated to a particular individual, but what is not clear is whether Xuxuan, the Provincial Governor, ordered it as patron, or received it as a gift from Ding while he was his superior.
The subject of Shoulao on a stag is an extremely unusual one for Ding and he notes that he copied it from an album by the famous Ming artist Tang Yin (1470-1523). The documents on the reverse are a group of ancient rubbings and a painting, and are the sort of documents that would be highly valued by the literati. The painting of the pine tree appears on other bottles where Ding noted that it was based on a painting by the Xuanhe Emperor (the reign title adopted between 1119 and 1125 by the Song Emperor and accomplished painter Huizong).
Han-dynasty tile-ends were highly valued, not only because they bore archaic inscriptions from a golden age of China's past, but also because they made ideal ink-stones, being made from a hard pottery ideally suited to the grinding of ink. Here, the rubbing of the tile-end bears Ding's seal, an artistic conceit suggesting to Ding's audience that he himself had made the rubbing.
A glass bottle by Ding dated to 1897 and painted with a miniature painting of peony and rockwork beneath two rubbings is illustrated by R. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles. The White Wings Collection, p. 244. no. 418. Kleiner also illustrates from the collection, p. 262, no. 181, a glass bottle by Ye Zhongsan the Elder dated to 1899 which is painted on each side with a collection of scattered rubbings and documents. See also two bottles painted by Ding with scenes of Shou Lao shown reclining against his recumbent deer illustrated by Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Vol. 4, Inside Painted, nos. 545 and 546, where further details of Ding's career are given, and many more of his works are published. Both of the Bloch bottles are dated to 1897.