These pictures show variations of a signature which raise as many questions as answers. The last
three pictures give the middle character 'Shou' in traditional style. While the first two pictures
of the first row show the same character in simplified style. Simplification of characters, although
discussed extensively in the early 1900's, did not become widely used until after the establishment of
the People's Republic of China in 1949. The last picture on the first row and first picture on the
second row introduce yet another interesting mystery. This character is also "shou" and also 4th
tone as in the others but it is a completely different word. An analogy might be the English words
"red" and "read". This implies a different artist who was only slightly acquainted with the first one.
Or even two artist since the quality of the calligraphy in the two bottles is very different and the
one in the first row does not contain the family name, "Yong".

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