engraved by Shen Da, alias Xiaozhuang

[George]

Talk about small script !!

Archived Bonhams listing...

An inscribed ivory 'Red Cliff' snuff dish

Question... What is Red Cliff ?

Ivory, and black pigment; snuff dish of cylindrical section, concave on each side; the back engraved with Su Shi's Rhapsody on Red Cliff and the first part of his Latter Rhapsody on Red Cliff, followed by 'engraved by Shen Da, alias Xiaozhuang'
Shen Da, 1895 - –1949

[Wattana]

George,

There is a small series of ivory snuff dishes, all with similar micro-engraving. Some were made by the artists who produced miniature calligraphy on ivory, glass and jade snuff bottles, although not in this particular case.

The Red Cliff is the site of a famous battle during the Han dynasty, immortalized in later Chinese literature. The attached link will explain the story much better than I ever could:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Red_Cliffs

Tom

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

George,
    The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is a source of many subjects portrayed on snuff bottles. Since the battle of the Red Cliffs  features prominently in this novel, it is found on the snuff dish. It must have been an extremely important piece of literature in mid and late Qing China, to have been so prominent a source.
Joey

[George]

Joey..

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of the next group of books that plan on purchasing..