Bought a bottle for my sister.

[Ruthven]

Hi, me again with more questions 

A couple of weeks ago I decided to buy a bottle as a present for my sisters birthday. As she had a little fat brown and white pony when we were kids I bought her this one as it looked rather like her old pony.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370576088087?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D370576088087%26_rdc%3D1

It has arrived and I really like it...    The down side is I am going to have to hand it over to her and not keep it as I told her I had ordered it!   

Could someone please translate what it says on the bottle for me?  Has anyone any idea why it would have so many seals on the bottle?   is Yi Pin Tang (as per the description)  an area in China or a painting school?

Thank you in advance.

Frances

[Steven]

Hi Frances,

Nice looking bottle! If I were you, I will keep if for myself.

If you know a little bit chinese traditional painting, you can see the painting is not the chinese style at all, its a Western painting style.

The painting is a copy of old painting from the famous italian painter Giuseppe Castiglione‎ who painted for chinese emperors for 50 years in his whole life. that is why there are some seals on the bottle.

Yi Pintang is a studio name, I would guess its from a independant artist.

Steven

[deelsb26]

nice bottle francis, I like the horse...ya next time wait till ya get one you want to give away ha...but your sister will love it I'm sure.
Danna

[Ruthven]

Thank you,

Yes I saw it was western style, but didn't realise that it was a copy of a well known artist.  Yes I am sure my sister will love it,  and for next Christmas I will find her another one.  Once she has two bottles she might just decide to start collecting them for herself!

But next time I think I will keep quiet until I see how much I like the bottle before handing it over!
 

[George]

Nice bottle !  Your Sister will love it !

[Wattana]

But next time I think I will keep quiet until I see how much I like the bottle before handing it over!

Hi Frances,

Good policy for next time. We live and learn! 
And it IS a very attractive bottle.

[hlbb]

I wonder if the other masterpiece by Giuseppe Castiglione was being copied to the IP as well.  By that I mean the 10 handsome dogs (十骏犬图) series.

The originals are in Taipei Palace Museum.  I remember I bought the complete set of stamps issued by Taiwan Postal Office when I was around 10 years old.  They are still in one of my stamp albums somewhere in the basement.  To me the dogs is a much better set of paintings than the horses - dog was not a subject that was wildly covered by traditional Chinese painters, and Catiglione did it so well!

Here is an example:

[rpfstoneman]

I wonder if the other masterpiece by Giuseppe Castiglione was being copied to the IP as well.  By that I mean the 10 handsome dogs (十骏犬图) series.

Walter,

I believe the answer is 'yes' in regard to the 10 dogs.  Bellow is a series of the 10 dogs that is currently listed on ebay for $1200 for the 5 bottles set.  I've seen this series done a few times over the last few years.

Charll

[Steven]

Thanks Charll and Walter for sharing!

The famous 10 dogs were copied a lot on IP bottles, we can see them from Joey's 'worlds in  a bottle' c18-c21, all are copies of the dogs, one by Ye family, one by Wang xisan and a set by Qiu shi and one bottle by Zheng shikui, I like the c21 painted by Zheng shikui the most.

Steven

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Frances,
   Castiglione's Chinese name was Lang Shi-ning ( pronounced Lang Shih Neeng).

Steven,
   The Zheng Shikui is 20th C., not 21st. ( undated, but ca.1984-1996).

Best,
   Joey

[hlbb]

Thank you all for enlightening the ignorant  .  I have a lot to catch up with.

I also realize I had posted the wrong picture, it was not in the Ten Fine Hounds (the official Taiwan name) series.

Also an interesting observation: on the ebay bottles I saw a couple of large seals.  At first I thought this is not surprising given the fact that Qianlong was the patron of Castiglione - and Qianlong is famous for putting his hideous chops on everything he could get his hand on - old masterpiece landscapes, calligraphies and jade objects (he actually had the court artisians craved his seal on a jade sword one time!).  Then I take a look at the image of the actual paintings and saw that they were actually quite "clean". (http://www.manresa-sj.org/stamps/3_Castiglione_2.htm)  

That get me thinking: what is the motivation for the IP artist to paint those seals?  I cannot see clearly what characters are on these seals but they do not look like the artist's personal seal. They are put outside of the flow of the calligraphy.

[Steven]

Steven,
   The Zheng Shikui is 20th C., not 21st. ( undated, but ca.1984-1996).

Dear Joey,

I was trying to say page C-21 on your book, not 21st.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Whoops, Steven!
  You are correct. It is C-21 in "Worlds". 
Joey