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618
A RARE INSIDE-PAINTED ‘QIN XUEFANG PORTRAIT’ GLASS
SNUFF BOTTLE
Ma Shaoxuan, 1925
Painted on one main face with an extraordinary grisaille portrait, said
to depict Qin Xuefang, wearing a double-strand necklace, possibly
pearls, over a collared jacket with key-pattern bands and bamboo
roundels, her short hair presumably tied back and under a simple
‘cossack-style’ winter fur hat, the other main face with a depiction of
butterflies, flowers and grasses beneath the inscription with date of
yichou, signature and seal.
2 11/16in (6.8 cm) high, stopper
$15,000 - 20,000

乙丑年（1925年） 馬少宣 玻璃內畫琴雪芳像鼻煙壺

Provenance:
Asiantiques, May 1993
Sorrell Collection

Published:
Arts of Asia, Sept-Oct 1995, p. 99

According to Emily Byrne Curtis, in her collector’s notes, the sitter is The earliest recorded subject of Ma’s popular butterflies and flowers
Qin Xuefang a Beijing actress. Of all the works by Ma Shaoxuan, the was painted in 1894, he then returned to the subject again and again
portrait bottles are certainly the most prized. The production of these over his long career. In our late example, none of the verve and life
continued throughout his career from the first (dated) example in 1902 of his finest examples has been lost, in fact, there is a clarity in the
to his many undated bottles produced at the end of his career. He depiction here, which may be partly due to his maturity but probably
retired in 1932. has more to do with keeping the image minimal on this side, so as
not to ‘clutter’ the portrait image when viewed from the other side.
For a lengthy discussion of Ma’s career, see Hugh Moss, Victor For another butterfly-subject bottle from the Ma family collection, with
Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The an identical placement of the butterflies and flowers, dated to 1925
Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part I, Inside Painted, pp. and titled Huantian xidi (Boundless Joy), see Ma Zhengshan, ibid, pp.
363-367, no.576, where the authors note that Ma was born in 1867 133-135, figs. 100 and 102. Here, the author relates the fascinating
to a family of Muslims, originally from Eastern Turkestan, living in the reasoning behind Ma’s re-visiting of the subject some thirty years after
Ox Street (Niujie) district of Beijing. His working career appears to have the original.
spanned between 1895 and 1932. For a very detailed account of the
artists life and oeuvre, see Ma Zhengshan, Inside-Painted Snuff Bottle For other examples of portrait Ma bottles that are undated but
Artist, Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939), Baltimore, 1997. attributed to have been painted variously between 1915 and 1932, see
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese
Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part I,
Inside Painted, pp. 445-457, no’s. 607, 608, 610 and 611.

For another butterfly-subject bottle formerly in the Emily Byrne Curtis
Collection, see Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, Snuff Bottles from the Mary
and George Bloch Collection: Part X, 1 June 2015, lot 92.

For an undated but signed portrait bottle attributed to the years
between 1899 and 1909, see Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, Snuff Bottles
From The Mary And George Bloch Collection: Part VI, 27 May 2013,
lot 211.

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