Page 224 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

184 Two Views 184 Y
An inside-painted glass snuff bottle
185 Two Views Ma Shaoxian, cyclically dated jiachen year
220 | Bonhams (AD1904)
The rectangular body depicting a scene from
the Ming dynasty novel Romance of the Three
Kingdoms and exquisitely painted with Lü
Meng, a military general serving under Sun
Quan, battling vigorously with Guan Yu, both
on white horses with Guan Yu holding his
well-known guandao, the reverse delicately
decorated with a poetic inscription in regular
script followed by artist’s signature and seal,
glass stopper.
6cm (2½in) high (2).
£3,000 - 5,000
HK$35,000 - 59,000 CNY28,000 - 47,000

玻璃內畫三國人物鼻煙壺
馬紹先，1904年作

Provenance: A European private collection and
thence by descent

來源：歐洲私人收藏，並由家族繼承下去

The inscription reads:

紫髯碧眼號英雄，
能使群僚肯盡忠。
二十四年承大業，
龍盤虎踞在江東。
作於京師

Which may be translated as:

‘Purple whiskers and jade green eyes are marks
of the hero;
They can make a group of officials agree to be
loyal to the full.
For 24 years they carry on to achieve a great
cause;
coiling dragon and crouching tiger on the east
river.
Made in the Capital.’

The poem refers to Sun Quan in the famous
Ming dynasty novel Romance of the Three
Kingdoms.

Ma Shaoxian is the nephew of Ma Shaoxuan,
whose works attempted to follow his uncle’s
style.