Page 50 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

433
A RARE INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
Ma Shaoxuan
Signed and dated gengzi year, corresponding to 1900
Of compressed rounded rectangular shape, painted on one main
face with a blue-robed boy wrestling a cat by its ears, which has a
bird in its mouth with feathers flying, below an inscription and seal,
shao, the reverse side with with a well-written forty-four-character
inscription preceded by the date and followed by the signature and
seal Shaoxuan; stopper.
2 1/4in (5.7cm) high

$8,000 - 12,000
庚子年(1900) 馬少宣 玻璃内畫玩童與貓鼻煙壺

Provenance:
Robert Kleiner
The Albemarle Collection
Robert Kleiner, The Albemarle Collection (no. 43), 30 March 2006

Literature:
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Albemarle Collection,
Hong Kong, 1994

Exhibited:
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria,
New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 118

For another example dated to 1903 with the same scene in paler
colors and with a different inscription on the reverse and dated to
1903, see Humphrey K.F. Hui, Lai Suk Yee and Peter Y.K. Lam,
Inkplay in Microcosm, Inside-painted Chinese Snuff Bottles, The
Humphrey K.F. Hui Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of
Hong Kong, 2002, no. 48, where the authors discuss the influence of
Bada Shanren on this work and the brilliant handling of the stressful
emotions at play in this depiction.

For two other rare examples of this subject matter, see Christie’s,
New York, The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff
Bottles: Part II, 16 March 2016, lot 417, for rock crystal bottle dated
1903 with the boy wearing a white robe and with a different poem to
the reverse, and another, perhaps a studio work, sold at Christie’s,
Hong Kong, 29-30 October 1995, lot 581.

48 | BONHAMS