Page 58 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

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AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE For another example with the identical lengthy inscription and date
Ma Shaoxian and depicting the same scene of a pair of cats, see Hugh Moss, Victor
Signed and dated jiachen year, corresponding to 1904 Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The
Of rounded rectangular shape, painted on one main face with two Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part 2, Inside Painted, Hong
felines playing vigorously in a flowery field below the title Shuang Huan Kong, 2000, pp. 490-492, no. 626, where the authors discuss Ma
Tu (Double Happiness painting) and on the other with a thirty-two- Shaoxian’s career in relation to that of his more illustrious uncle, Ma
character inscription praising spring’s subtle greenness in the capital, Shaoxuan. Ma Shaoxian’s earliest recorded dated bottle appears to be
preceded by the date, and followed by the signature and seal Shao; 1899. He appears to have worked both at his uncle’s studio, where he
stopper. sublimated his output to that of his uncle and signed using his uncle’s
2 1/4in (5.6cm) high signature, and later at his home in Xuannan, a district of Beijing, only
reverting to his own name in bursts.
$3,500 - 4,500
The subject on our bottle, two playful cats, was first painted by his
甲辰年（1904） 馬少先 玻璃內畫雙歡圖帶詩文鼻煙壺 uncle in 1897 and became a family studio standard. The poem on the
reverse side was composed by Han Yu (768-824 CE), a well-known
Provenance: Tang literary figure and philosopher. For a translation of the poem
Sotheby’s, New York, 17 September 1996, lot 116 see ibid., p. 492. For other examples of the same subject by Ma
Shaoxuan, see two others in this collection, nos. 247 and 301.
Exhibited:
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, New York, 5-9
November 2013, no. 69

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