Warrior IPB (likely post 1990)-Need Help with Chinese Script

[rpfstoneman]

To anyone that is willing to help,

It is Christmas evening just after eating the traditional turkey dinner with all the fix’ens.  I have some down time just before the family marathon game of Monopoly.   So I decide some pictures were in order and uploaded pictures of an IPB that was purchased in the summer of 1999 for $130 (US) at a local gift shop in Eureka, CA.  When purchased, no information came with the bottle.

Thus, I need some help in the ID of the artist and a translation of the Chinese script on the bottle.  I am in a position to spend the time to gather some background information on some of my bottles and obviously need all the help I can get. If anyone out there on the forum is in a position to assist, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hope all had a wonder Holiday,

Charll

[Tom B.]

Hi Charll,

I can't help with the signature, but it is dated on both sides as being made in the spring of the YI Hai year which in this case would mean 1995.  I made a little diagram to help you to identify the date characters.

[rpfstoneman]

Tom, thanks for the help on the date and the diagram.  This is a good start on my information request.  Charll

[Steven]

Merry Chirstmas all!

I just came back from a 10 days ski trip from colorado, missed lots of fun on the forum:)

That is a beautiful bottle, the bottle was paint by a very famous artist" xu, Pengqi" dated at 1959, the  warrior is a famous chinese hero " yue fei" who was known by every single chinese, very beautiful painted and calligrapgy!!!!

You have a very good taste:)

Cheers.

Steven

[Tom B.]

Hi Steven,

Welcome back.  Glad that you corrected that reading of the date.  On the one side (photo with Charll's thumb) the character in question looks more like a"yi" than a "ji", but on the other side it is clearly a "ji".  I didn't expect such a decoration on a bottle older than 10 or 20 years; it looked Very Modern to me. So the date is JiHai for 1959 and I learn again.   

[George]

Hi Steven..

Hope you had a great vacation !

Just wanted to say welcome back 

[Steven]

Thanks all for the warm welcome back:),

-Tom,

When I saw the bottle, I thought it could be a very modern bottle too, didn't expect which date 1959, but Xu, peng yi is a old master of hengshui, I don't think he still painting any more, his son( Xu bu sheng) and his daughter ( Xu, zhuo jing) are still painting...

Steven

[Tom B.]

Hi Steven,

You are probably right about Xu Pengqi being more or less retired.  I was just looking at the Xu family website and see that Xu Bu is the contact person there, maybe Charll could send some images for authentication.

[rpfstoneman]

Thank you, Tom and Steven for some insight on the date and artist of this bottle.  My good taste in IPBs may be all I have to contribute to this forum.  Though, some more experienced collectors have even questioned my taste in bottle purchasing; all in good fun!  All I can say is that I collect what I like.  My IPB collecting habit has been solely based on the artistic merit and quality of the bottle, with no regard to the artist.   I can recognize the signage of Ma Shaoxuan and the style Zhou Lyuan, and know that typical Ye and Ye Family bottles are not to my taste.  Though half of my collection is IPBs, I have never taken the time to get to know each of them well and gather the relevant background information on each bottle.  I expect that this forum may help resolve some of that complacency. 

I am more of a general collector knowing a little in each area and an expert in none! 

I am in the process of providing a better inventory format and description of each bottle with full script translations.  Have a 20 year backlog of IPBs that I am trying to document with translations of the Chinese script and looking for any help I can get!

Back to the bottle at hand, have a date and plausible artist.  Any help with the balance of the script would be much appreciated.   Thanks for the help, and adding some excitement and mentoring to this novice IPB collector.

Charll

P. S.- Though I love the possibility of the bottle having a date of 1959, it begs the question as to this really being the case given time period and source of the purchase.  Could such a date be a ruse or simply a copy of an older bottle?   

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Steven

This  is  GREAT   STUFF  !

I never came across  Xu Pengyi before  ( nor  his son and  daughter)

Goes  to  show  that  there's always  more  out there  to be  learned  !

Sometimes  collecting   data  on  IPBs  is  as  exciting as  collecting  bottles  themselves !

I have   just spent  an hour   copying  all  this  stuff  from this  forum  string  to a new   file  on  Xu Pengyi  in my  data  base.

But  if  you  (  or  Tom  or  Charll    or ANYONE  )  have   any more  info  or  pics  on  Xu  Pengyi    and/or  his   son  and  daughter  please  would  you   email  to me   DIRECTLY  as    word.doc  or  pdf  for  info  and  jpg   for  pics ?

Many thanks  !

Cheers  Peter

PS  :  Are  you  sure   Xu Pengyi  is   Ji  school / Hengshui   and  not   Jing  school/  BJ  ?  Surely  in  1959   WXS  was  not     teaching   anyone  so   Xu  Pengyi  must  have   been  taught  by  one  of  the   few  remaining  late  middle  school  artists  who lived  in BJ at that  time

[Tom B.]

Hi Peter,

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas. I am unsure if you looked the Xu Family website, but they have a lot of Information there.

http://www.snuffbottlexu.com/

[Tom B.]

P.S. By the way, I meant to ask your opinion as to the dating of Charll's bottle.  I looked at some verified dates on porcelain (Qianjiang School) and most calligraphers write the Ji character with a prominent upper "reverse c".  Some writers make the Yi character with a hook at the upper end.  This is my results so far:

[rpfstoneman]

Based on the information that Tom provided the date appears to be 1995.  Steven has provided the artist and the time frame seems to fit the 1995 year as based on the bios off the Xu Family website.  Encourage all to visit the website provided by Tom.  A wealth of information, pictures of the artist, and gallery of bottle pics.  Thanks guys.

Charll

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

WOW  !

How  come  the  Xu  family  is  off  most  MIPB   radar   horizons  ! 

There's a load  of  stuff on the   website  ( and some  lovely bottles )

I will  start to   download all the  pics   today to my data base

Many thanks  to  Steven for this  lead  !

Cheers  Peter

PS  :  but WHO  was  Xu Pengyi's   teacher  ? !

[Steven]

Thank you  Tom for collecting the date of the bottle, I think 1995 fit the style perfectly....

- Peter,

Based the info I found, Xu Peng qi don't have any teacher, he learned all by himself, his father know a little bit inside painting, but don't want his son be a inside paint artist, Xu has passion on the inside painting, he start his painting at his very young age, and eventually developed his own xu's style...

P.S , I was wrong on his son's name, his name should be" Xu bu" not "Xu bu sheng"

[Steven]

Another artist " Wang zhankang" Xu Peng qi's student... incase someone interested in.

http://hengshui.2006hao.blog.163.com/

[Tom B.]

Hi all,

Thank you Steven, for translating the signature and introducing us to Xu Pengqi. On his website they mention that his father was working as a teacher when Xu Pengqi was born.  I would assume that the father taught his son the traditional ink on paper type of art, and Xu Pengqi adapted it to inside painting. 

Charll, if I were in your position I would contact Xu Bu via the email address on the Xu family website and ask if he or his father can verify the date.  By that opportunity you could possibly request addition biographical information, such as his birthdate, artistic education, etc. Definitely worth a try.

[Tom B.]

Hi Steven,

I looked at the link you sent and Wang Zhan Kang is also very talented.  The site is all in Chinese and I really didn't understand the apparent connection of Wang to Xu Pengqi.  The following passage probably tells it, but maybe you or another Chinese speaking member could explain it.

 近年来，河北衡水内画艺术发展迅猛，涌现出一批优秀的冀派内画高手。衡水饶阳王氏内画坊就是新崛起的一座冀派内画重镇。画坊主人王占康，自幼喜爱书画艺术，长期研习书法、绘画，积累了深厚的艺术功底，作品散见于书画报刊，现为衡水市书法家协会会员。王占康从事内画艺术二十余年，因其书画基础扎实，个人勤于思考，潜心研究，博采众长，推陈出新，精品接连不断，在衡水内画界享有盛名。

Thanks in adavance.

[Steven]

Hi Tom,

It basically tell you that wang zhan kang is a very talent inside painting artist with 20 year inside painting experience, his style is "Jibai" which means from "shandong Hengshui"
It doesn't tell you his teacher is Xu pengqi, but from the reaserch I did, he was one of Xu Pengqi's students.

Sorry for my lousy english, I was trying to translate the whole script for Charll on his bottle , but its really hard for me to do since the script was written on an old style also my lousy english skill:(

Steven

[Tom B.]

Hi Steven,

Thank you very much for translating that; I didn't think it was mentioning the Student/teacher relationship in that text.  Great that you have been able to do further research on his background.  By the way, your English is vey good.