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Romance of the Western Chamber

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wgeoff
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« on: March 31, 2014, 09:34:55 pm »

My offer this week is a set of bottles for the romantic traditionalist - images taken from the Romance of the Western Chamber, a very racy tale set in the Tang Dynasty.

Mine is a set of ten bottles, each with two scenes and two sets of calligraphy describing the scenes plus calligraphy covering the whole story on one side of the last bottle - a pretty massive task for any inside-painter. The quality is not as good as the Kangxi set I showed earlier, but still quite good and I'm happy to show each scene here.
These are round bottles so they don't photograph too well.

So here goes. I think the story goes roughly

Poor man going to Imperial Examinations meets rich girl in monastery - love at first sight

 

Monk guides man to Western Chamber to meet girl

 

They communicate by poem. But robber surrounds monastery and demands to have girl

 

Mother promises girl's hand in marriage to anyone who can save them. Man writes to his local soldier friend who rescues them

 

But mother revokes her rash promise . Lovers communicate through girl's maid

 

They exchange music and poems

 

Maid helps man and girl meet in garden but mother intervenes again

 

Man is distraught but maid arranges meeting between man and girl

 

And here's the racy bit. Man and girl meet to consummate their relationship. Mother hears and punishes maid.

 

Man is sent away to complete Imperial Examination.



And here the story stops - at least on my bottles. Whether the artist just ran out of space to complete the story or he chose to have the sad ending (both sad and happy endings exist) I don't know. But he wrote out the story and then put his name to the bottles

 

I think the artist is Li Xiaojing and the bottles were painted in 2000?

Hope you like, and are not too disturbed (or too excited) by the racy content.

Geoff
« Last Edit: January 06, 2020, 10:54:43 pm by George » Report Spam   Logged

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Peter Bentley 彭达理
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« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2014, 10:10:23 pm »

Hey  Geoff !

That's  really  hot  stuff  - much better  than  Fifty Shades  of  Grey !

The   artist  is  indeed  Li Xiaojing  : I checked the   signature   which is  very  clear

She's  a  lady  and  an  ex- Zhang Rucai   student

You  will  find  her  in the  DB ,  but  only  one  proper  listing   which is the  new  Ji School  book.  Nonetheless,  there's  several  of  her  bottles  there,  enough to show the  similarity  in style

must   scan the   Zhang Rucai  book which  Inn Bok  drew  my attention to recently.  I've had a  copy  for a long  time  but  just  not   got round to    scanning  it (in fact  I  forgot  I  had the  book ! I must have  bought  it  from Richard Baey).  It  covers a  lot  of  junior   Hengshui artists  from the  late  1990's to the  early  2000's,  most of  whom  faded  away by  2003/4/5 because  there  are  no further  bottles  by them  after  then  on record

Li  Xiaojing  was one  exception, as  was  Li Xiuchun  who  went on to  marry  Fu Guoshun . Also the   great Jiang Wenchun  of   100-tigers-in-a-bottle-the-size-of-a-fingernail  fame (which we saw  at  CAC )

Indeed a lovely  set !  Thanks  for   sharing it.

Cheers
Peter
« Last Edit: March 31, 2014, 11:22:46 pm by Peter Bentley 彭达理 » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2014, 10:35:28 pm »

Very nice set Geoff.  I am impressed with your collection.  I HAVE to have mine photographed.  Working on it....
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Pat
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George
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« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2014, 10:36:03 pm »

This is the first time have seen a group of bottles together stretching out a continuous story line..

Really amazing and seems rare to see such a group together..

Really enjoy seeing these.. Thank you for sharing !
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wgeoff
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« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2014, 11:27:30 pm »

Thanks for these comments and for Peter giving me a reference for Li Xiaojing.

In fact, she is already known to me although I had forgotten - see here

http://snuffbottle.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,1942.0.html

I'm sure I have more bottles by her which I have yet to show. I bought all these bottles from a shop in Shenzhen which I used to frequent in the early 2000's.

Sorry for calling Li Xiaojing a man. I'd like to meet her some day, apologise personally.

Geoff
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« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2014, 11:33:34 pm »

Geoff

Just as a frame of reference, I started buying bottles in the same time frame from 1999 on.  At the time (1999-2005), I was paying $150-300 on the average (good to great) and $500 would be a stretch.  Does that match your buying patterns?

I am trying to get a feel for the evolution of prices....
« Last Edit: March 31, 2014, 11:37:37 pm by Pat » Report Spam   Logged

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Wattana
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« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2014, 01:12:19 am »

Nice set of bottles Geoff. And thanks for a synopsis of the story line.

A finishing touch by the artist would have been to paint two 'last' bottles, one with the happy ending and one with the sad ending, so the set could be displayed differently depending on one's mood of the day.   Wink

Tom
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wgeoff
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« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2014, 05:33:03 am »

Pat - I was paying amounts similar to you, but in HK$ or Rmb - usually from 800 to 2,000 of either at about 8 to one US$. These bottles cost Rmb 800 each or 8,000 for the set. But for the really special ones like the Lu Jianguang or Ye Zhongsan, up to 6,000 per bottle.

Tom - just one extra bottle needed for the happy ending - he passes the exams, becomes celebrated and returns to marry the girl with the approval of her mother. The sad ending finishes with what I already have. Perhaps I should commission the extra bottle - must get to see Ms Li.

Geoff

 
« Last Edit: April 01, 2014, 05:36:01 am by wgeoff » Report Spam   Logged

Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司
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« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2014, 04:20:31 pm »

Dear Geoff,
    Interesting set. Thank you for posting it.
Best,
 Joey
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Joey Silver (Si Zhouyi 義周司), collecting snuff bottles since Feb.1970

Peter Bentley 彭达理
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« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2014, 05:39:56 pm »

Hi Pat, Geoff, All

I  was  paying   RMB2,000  -  4,000  up until    2008  for  really good  bottles

Then   suddenly  the  prices   shot  up to  RMB10,000  -  20,000  by about   2010

Talking  of   story  telling    in a  bottle  series,  I  saw an amazing  series  by  Liu Shiouben  based  on   copies  of  classical  paintings  which Yeo Konghoo   collected (  Jeff  -  check  your   copy  near the  end)

Talk about    porn....   this   is  XXX    rated   stuff !

Cheers
Peter
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