Page 34 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

422
A MINIATURE INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE
Ma Shaoxuan
Signed and dated dingyou year, corresponding to 1897
Of compressed rectangular shape with a short cylindrical neck, finely
painted on one side with a flower seller releasing a pole suspending
two flower baskets from his shoulders, his straw hat hung at one end,
beneath an inscription ‘Xijian Tu’ (picture of resting the shoulders), the
reverse with a twenty-eight-character poem preceded by the date and
followed by the signature and seal, Xuan; stopper.
1 3/8in (3.4cm) high
$12,000 - 18,000

丁酉年(1897) 馬少宣 水晶内畫「息肩圖」配詩文微型鼻煙壺

Provenance:
Sotheby’s, London, 20 April 1982, lot 196
Hugh M. Moss Ltd.
The J & J Collection
Christie’s New York, Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from The J & J
Collection, Part III, 29 March 2006, lot 31

Literature:
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, The Art of Chinese Snuff
Bottle, The J & J Collection, vol. 2, New York, 1993, no 422
Snuff Bottles Aus China Sammlung J & J, 1996-1997, p. 21, fig. b
The Art of the Chinese Snuff Bottle - The J & J Collection: An Exhibition
at the Percival David Foundation, 1997, p. 21, fig. b
The Miniature World — An Exhibition of Snuff Bottles from the J & J
Collection, p. 69

Exhibited:
Christie’s, New York, 1993 Empress Palace Museum, Singapore, 1994
Museum for Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt, 1996-1997 Percival David
Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1997 Naples Museum of Art,
Florida, 2002
Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, 2002 National Museum of History,
Taipei, 2002
International Asian Art Fair, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, 2003
Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2003
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria,
New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 117

The subject ‘Xiijian Tu’ (picture of resting the shoulders) was visited
several times by Ma but usually in a larger format. For other examples
see, Ma Zengshan, Inside-Painted Bottle Artist Ma Shaoxuan (1867-
1939), Baltimore, 1997, p. 41, fig. 15; Hugh Moss (ed.) Chinese Snuff
Bottles, Number Two, pp. 47-49, fig. 17 and later sold at Sotheby’s,
London, 2 July 1984, lot 301 The poem to the reverse was composed
by Liu Yuxi and entitled ‘Revisiting the Xuandu Daoist Monastery’.

32 | BONHAMS