Page 60 - September 21 2021 MAnfred Arnold Collection snuff bottles Bonhams NYC

440
AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE
Ma Shaoxuan
Signed and dated dingwei year, corresponding to 1907, Beijing
One main face painted with Wang Xiang seated on an iced-over river
fishing for carp beneath, a descriptive poem above which includes the
signature and seal, yin, the reverse side painted with a grasshopper or
cricket on a cabbage leaf with a radish to one side and a grouping of
narcissus in the background below another inscription which includes
the date and seal, Shaoxuan; stopper.
2 3/8in (6.1cm) high

$12,000 - 18,000
丁未年（1907） 馬少宣 玻璃内畫「王祥孝母」鼻煙壺 北京

Provenance:
Jack Rose
Sotheby’s London, The Jack Rose Collection, 6 June 1988, lot 284
White Wings Collection
Robert Kleiner, The White Wings Collection, 8 January 1999

Literature:
ICSBS Journal, Autumn, 1988, p. 26, fig. 7
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles - The White Wings Collection,
Hong Kong, 1997, p. 278, no. 194

Exhibited:
International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria,
New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 80

See Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of
Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol.
4, Part 2, Inside Painted, pp. 418-419, no. 597 for a bottle dated
1899 with a near identical subject on a differently shaped crystal
example. But for the placement of the inscription above the figure of
Wang Xiang, the inscription on one side is near identical. The authors
describe the bottle as one of Ma’s great early masterpieces. The
subject was painted as early as 1894, and he appears to have painted
at least three in 1898. Two others are recorded for 1904.

For a full description of ‘filial duties’ as exemplified by Wang Xiang, see
Michael C. Hughes, The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Chinese Snuff
Bottles, Baltimore, 2009, pp. 276-277, no. 123 where a porcelain
example depicting such duties and including an image of Wang Xiang
is illustrated and discussed.

See Bonhams, Hong Kong, The Mary and George Bloch Collection,
Part I, 28 May 2010, lot 24 for the crystal example listed above.

58 | BONHAMS