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Hello All,

one of my favorite IPB's w/ a favorite theme of "Children At Play" and I am hoping one of the Chinese experts might be able to give an interpretation of the writing.
Thank you for looking

Best,

Kevin

The two stacks of handwritten characters read down and across from the right as 汝杠 (Rugang - the artist's given name), then 丁卯年 (Dingmao Nian - Cyclical date of 1987). I can't make out the red seal beneath the right stack, but the one under the left stack may contain the character 太 (Tai - "Very") or maybe a lopsided 木 (Mu - Wood).

Rugang is the given name of painter An Rugang (安汝杠 (Standard characters 安汝槓), who also uses a professional alias of An Gong (安杠). According to information found online, An was born in Hengshui, Hebei in 1963 and at some point moved to Beijing. He graduated with painting majors from the Qinghua University Academy of Fine Arts and the Renmin University of China School of Art. As a painter of portraits who's also known for his animals and unique style, An is considered to be a collectible artist, at least in China. He has traveled abroad with cultural delegations and painted snuff bottles, including some with portraits of leaders he has met.

The big question pending is whether this snuff is one of his or a copy, something some Chinese artists are wont to produce. I am not very into the realm of snuff bottle collecting, but maybe rat and others will have some insight here. I include a link to some of An's paintings, though none on snuff bottles. However, I must say that the kids on your bottle bear more than a passing resemblance to his style, as displayed in the one painting of his I found at the link showing a child and old man. I also did some Google queries in English but found nothing apparently relevant.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :An Rugang

Bill,

Many thanks for the informative post, very helpful! I will research the artist.
I can only say the one who painted this bottle is a very good artist, hoping others too who are familiar w/ An's work will also post their comments.
Best,

Kevin

ERRATUM: An Rugang's professional alias of An Gong derives from the characters 安工, not what I mis-copied above from my notes.
Bill H.

Many thanks for the post

I wasn't aware earlier, and I should add now that the bottle itself is made of rock crystal, rather than glass with a hard stone stopper

Kevin

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