Page 59 - Carl Barron Snuff Bottle Collection, CHRISTIE's Spet 12 2018

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AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE own signature is dated to 1899. Hugh Moss notes that he was
SIGNED SHAOXIAN, DATED BINGZI (1936) already an accomplished painter by this point, indicating that he
must have been working in the family workshops for some time
One side is delicately painted in bright colors with a scholar wearing
(Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuf Bottles: the
a wide hat and holding a sprig of lingzhi as he rides a donkey
Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part 2, p. 490). Shaoxian
followed by an attendant, all below a large pine tree. The reverse is
used his own name sporadically on bottles from at least 1899 until
painted with a four-line poetic inscription noting it was painted in
1932, when his uncle retired. At that point, free to explore his own
Xuannan, also containing the artist’s signature and date.
style and capabilities, Shaoxian used his own signature.
2º in. (5.7 cm.) high, carnelian stopper
$8,000-10,000 The subject depicted on the current bottle is rarely seen. When
signing his own works he usually employed his assumed name,
PROVENANCE Ma Shaoxian, although occasionally, on a few of his masterpieces,
Robert Kleiner, Belfont Company Ltd., Hong Kong, 1995. such as this bottle, he signed with both that and his given name,
Ruth and Carl Barron Collection, Belmont, Massachusetts, no. 1997. Ma Guoting. Moss notes that Shaoxian used his given name
EXHIBITED generally on his later works, “and never on anything less than
Boston, International Chinese Snuf Bottle Society Convention, masterly.” (ibid. p. 498).
The Barron Collection, 23-26 September 2008.
Another Ma Shoaxian bottle from the same year, from The Ruth
It is likely that Ma Shaoxian, the nephew of Ma Shaoxuan, worked and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuf Bottles: Part I,
with his uncle producing bottles to be sold with his uncle’s was sold at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2015, lot 212.
signature. One of the earliest bottles on which Shaoxian used his
丙子年(1936) 馬紹先作玻璃內畫採芝圖詩文鼻煙壺
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