A Chinese hanging scroll, 17th century, in the style of Cui Bai ( 1004-1088 ), painted with two birds standing on a blossoming prunus tree covered with snow, ink and colour on paper, 70.5 x 42cm Provenance: Previously in the Abel William Bahr Collection (1877-1959), thence by descent. 十七世纪 崔白(传) 雪意梅雀图 设色纸本 立轴 Born to a German father, working as a civil servant in Shanghai, and a Chinese mother, Abel Bahr was educated at St. Francis Xavier`s School in Shanghai. He started his working life as a clerk, joining the merchants Hopkins, Dunn & Co. in 1900, and his interest in Chinese art seems to have developed a short while after, in around 1905, when he began a collection of Kangxi (1662-1722) porcelain. In 1908, under the auspices of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, for whom he was secretary, he promoted the first exhibition of Chinese art in Shanghai. Despite moving to England in 1910, he made frequent trips back to China to add to his collection of ceramics, jade and glass. His early jades were exhibited in 1927 and later sold to the Field Museum in Chicago, and he lent four paintings and an embroidered picture to the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1935-36. Pieces from his collection are held in many public museums and galleries around the world, acquired either through purchase or gift, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, the Montreal Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum and the British Museum. Condition Report Both roller knobs missing. Writing to the mounting. Stains and dirt marks throughout. Cockled. Creasing and tears in various locations, signs of old repairs.