Page 223 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

183 Two Views

183 Y The poem reads:
An inside-painted glass ‘butterflies’ snuff bottle
Ma Shaoxuan, cyclically dated bingshen year (AD 1896) 百樣精神百樣春，
The flattened rectangular body delicately painted on one side with 小園深處靜無塵。
a dainty green butterfly hovering above smaller butterflies in various 筆花妙得天然趣，
colours pollinating a bush of flowers, all under an inscription Huan tian 不是尋常夢裡人。
xi di (blissful sky and joyful land) with the seal Shao, the reverse with a
poem in regular script followed by the artist’s signature and seal, coral Which may be translated as:
stopper.
5.9cm (2 1/3in) high (2). ‘The hundreds of living creatures in the hundreds of springs,
£4,000 - 6,000 Deep in the small garden it is tranquil without dust.
HK$47,000 - 71,000 CNY38,000 - 56,000 The painted blossoms so marvellous they capture the essence of nature.
This is not the dream of a common man.’
玻璃內畫彩蝶紋鼻煙壺
馬少宣，1896年作 Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939), together with Zhou Leyuan and Ye
Zhongsan, are known as the three masters of inside-painted snuff
Provenance: A European private collection and thence by descent bottles. The subject of ‘butterflies’ is one of his recognised themes in
snuff bottles, which also influenced other renowned artists such as Gui
來源：歐洲私人收藏，並由家族繼承下去 Xianggu.

Compare an example in the Humphrey K.F.Hui Collection illustrated by
H.Hui, S.Y.Lai and P.Lam, Inkplay in Microcosm: Inside-painted Chinese
Snuff Bottles: The Humphrey K.F.Hui Collection, Hong Kong, 2002,
no.29 and 32.

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