Page 22 - March 15 2017 The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection

•323
A RARE INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
SIGNED MA SHAOXUAN, CIRCA 1900
The bottle is decorated on one side with a fgure holding a staf
while walking on a winding path within a mountainous landscape
with tall trees and two huts. The reverse has a long inscription
which incorporates a name, Fuchen, and excerpts of the poem Lou
Shi Ming (‘A Eulogy On My Humble Abode’), followed by the name
and seal of the artist.

2¡ in. (6 cm.) high, agate stopper

$10,000-15,000

PROVENANCE

Robert Kleiner, Belfont Company Ltd., Hong Kong, 1997.
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts,
no. 2377.

EXHIBITED

Boston, International Chinese Snuf Bottle Convention, The Barron
Collection, 23-26 September 2008.

Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939) was one of the most technically Although Ma is known for his bottles with landscape scenes, the
accomplished artists of the Beijing School of snuf-bottle painting, particular view depicted on the present bottle is rare. Related
which was founded by Zhou Leyuan and included other leading examples decorated with a landscape on one side and the same
artists, such as Ding Erzhong and Ye Zhongsan. poem on the other also exist. Compare, a crystal bottle painted
by Ma Shaoxuan in the spring of 1896, with an idyllic river-side
Lou Shi Ming was written by the Tang dynasty scholar-oficial Liu landscape and excerpts from the same poem, with an additional
Yuxi (772-842), and the excerpt seen on the present bottle may be sentence, illustrated by R. Hall, Chinese Snuf Bottles III, p. 41,
translated as follows: no. 25. Compare also, a glass bottle inscribed by Ma Shaoxuan
in 1898 on both sides with the same poem but in its entirety,
‘A mountain does not need to be high. It becomes known when illustrated by B. C. Stevens, The Collector’s Book of Snuf Bottles,
immortals are to be found. A river does not need to be deep. It p. 236, no. 836, and by R. Hall, Chinese Snuf Bottles XI, The
becomes enchanted when dragons are to be found. Here is my Snowy Peaks Collection, no. 99.
humble cottage. Through my reputation [its name spreads like]
fragrance. The steps are green with scattered moss.’ 1900年前後 馬少宣作玻璃内畫「陋室銘」詩文鼻煙壺

20 THE RUTH AND CARL BARRON COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES: PART IV