Wild Cats

[wgeoff]

Two members of the wild Cat family on this 2010 bottle by Wang Sijia.

The first is a Leopard - but who can tell me what species the second one is?









I do know what it is but it took me an hour searching Google to find out

[rpfstoneman]

Geoff,

Wild cats is one of the themes I enjoy on IPBs. The second cat could be some species of lynx or a Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in a 'stocking' pose with it's ears turn down. 

Charll

Link to a Canadian lynx: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/1466383/?source=gallery

[George]

Beautiful cats !

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Geoff,  All

Geoff and  I  went bird-watching  on a  remote  island  in  HK coastal  waters  last  week.

Geoff mentioned  he  had  bought a  few bottles  from Bill  Patrick  including  some  by Wang Sijia and    the  one  he   has  shown below  is one of them.

WSJ  is  the  most  senior  and   probably the   best   artist  who  was  schooled  under  Li Shouxun in Hengshui.

Most of  LSX's    best students  have  now  gone  out on their  own and  you  can  find  WSJ's  bottles  in  Jill's   recent  catalogs.

Li Shouxun's  "school"  is  well  known  for  it's  superb  copy-painting  i.e,  copies  of  Chinese   and Western "canvas" art,   photos ....whatever.   It's  not  "original , creative"   VMIPB  art,  but  it's probably  THE  best  copy-painting  you  can find  today.  And - the  last time I  checked  - still at  very  reasonable prices.

If  you  want a favorite painting  (or  photo)  copied, I  advise  to  go  direct to  LSX  who  will  either  commission  one  of  his  (ex-)  top students  or  even  paint  it  himself.  I can  help  make  an introduction  if necessary.

Bill  Patrick  collected  probably  over  200  (maybe    300 )  bottles  painted  by  Li Shouxun's  best  students  in the  mid- 2000s, many of  which  were  actually commissions   by  Bill  based  on modern  oil and  water color  paintings  he   admires

Bill is  also  now  selling   off several of  his  bottles  to  reduce  his  collection.

Check  Bill's  website  both for  the bottles  he  owns  and those  for  sale  <wwwsnuffbottlecollector.com>

I myself  commissioned  a  series  of  12 x   bottles   from Li Shouxun  personally  at  2  x bottles  per  year.  They  were  copies  of   abstract  Chinese  landscape  paintings  by  a  Shandong  artist  : Zhang Yumao 张玉 茂  (two of  which original  paintings  I myself  own)

The  original paintings  are  huge  (  3 - 4  feet  tall )  and I  managed  to  get a  "coffee  table "  ( i.e. 20 "  x  15" )   size   book of   all  Zhang  Yumao's  paintings  from  which  LSX   finally  copied    24   selected paintings  into  12 x   identical-sized bottles  4 "   high

The  detail  is  incredible,  and  LSX   even managed  to capture the   - sometimes  almost  ethereal -  original  colors of the  original  paintings.

In truth,  I  love  original/ creative  VMIPBs.  But that  does  not  mean that  I  don't   also love   perfect  copies  of  original "canvas"  size   paintings .

I rate  this  series  of  12 x  bottles  as  probably the  finest  copy-abstract-Chinese -landscape   VMIPBs   that  have ever  been  painted.   It  took   LSX  well   over    one   month  per  bottle,  which  is  why the  commission  was  spread  over  6  years.

Of course  every  collector  has his/ her  own  particular  collecting theme.

Sadly we  VMIPB  collectors  are still  so  few  and  far between  that    it's  rare    for  two  collectors  to  rave  over the  same  theme. I think  only  Charll  on the   Forum shares  my  passion  for  Chinese  landscapes  , but  if there others  please  let's   communicate  -  either  via the  Forum  or  privately  if  you   prefer.

But  anyway  -  I  do  rave  over  Chinese  landscapes , especially  abstract  landscapes  - as  anyone  who  has visited  my   home surely  knows.

Cheers

Peter

[wgeoff]

Hi Peter, good to see you back on the website.

Yes, I really admire the precision of Wang Sijia's painting - see two more here

http://snuffbottle.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,2416.0.html

The wild cat above is a Pallas's Cat or Manul - see here on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallas%27s_cat

Apparently the oldest living cat species, about 5 million years old. Never even heard of it before

[rpfstoneman]

The wild cat above is a Pallas's Cat or Manul

Interesting, I had not heard of this species of cat before.  Thanks for the link.  Charll

[OIB]

Charll,

Thanks for the info. Very enlightening 

Inn Bok

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Geoff,
    Yes, thank you.
 I have learned another new thing from you today. I had never heard of a Manul before.
Best,
  Joey