Page 59 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

439
AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE Our bottle depicts the Northern Song dynasty scholar Ouyang Xiu
Attributed to Ma Shaoxuan (1002-1072) seated reading by candlelight. The reverse side has an
Signed and dated wushen year, corresponding to 1908 inscription partially taken from the essay Qiusheng fu, ‘Ode to the
Painted with a scene of the scholar, Ouyang Xiu reading by candlelight Autumn Sounds’, written by Ouyang Xiu. For a full discussion of the
in a small pavilion, his assistant nearby, under a pine and a moon, the subject, see see Humphrey K.F. Hui, Lai Suk Yee and Peter Y.K. Lam,
reverse with a long inscription and the seal xuan; stopper. Inkplay In Microcosm, Inside-painted Chinese Snuff Bottles, The
2 3/8in (6cm) high Humphrey K.F. Hui Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of
Hong Kong, 2002, no. 28.
$3,000 - 4,000
The subject was painted by Ma as early as 1895, however the late
戊申年（1908） 傳馬少宣 玻璃内畫「秉烛夜读」圖鼻煙壺 date of 1908 and the somewhat cursory handling of the subject here
suggests that the Ma family workshop may have had a hand in its
Provenance: production.
Dr. and Mrs. Louis E. Wolferz
Sotheby’s, New York, The Dr. and Mrs. Louis E. Wolferz Collection, 15 A rock-crystal bottle of the same subject, on one side, was sold at
March 1984, lot 332 Bonhams, San Francisco, 27 June 2017, lot 2053.

Exhibited:
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, New York, 5-9
November 2013, no. 28

THE MANFRED ARNOLD COLLECTION OF CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES | 57