An inside-painted glass ‘Mei Lanfang’ snuff bottle, By Liu Shouben, dated wuwu year, corresponding to 1978 | 戊午年（1978年） 劉守本作玻璃內畫梅蘭芳肖像鼻煙壺

Liu Shouben was born in 1943. Although he did not come from an artistically educated family, he loved art above all else at school. Leaving school early, he began work as a grinder of pigments in the cloisonné factory at Beijing. In October of 1960, he and Ding Guiling 丁桂玲 were re-assigned to the inside-painted workshop where the Ye brothers worked and taught their students Wang Xisan 王習三 and Ye Shuying 葉樹英.

Apart from learning the art of inside painting from the Ye brothers, Liu Shouben and Wang Xisan both eagerly studied traditional painting, sketching, and other arts in their spare time and visited the Palace Museum whenever they could. They were both ardent students of Chinese culture in general, and both devoured books on a regular basis trying to improve their understanding of their tradition. For a fuller account of Liu and his works, see J. H. Leung, A New Look of Chinese Inside Painted Snuff Bottles, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 120–127.

See two similar 'portrait' bottles by Liu Shouben in the Mary and George Bloch Collection, sold in these rooms, 23rd November 2014, lot 196; and 31st May 2015, lot 69.