AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLE MA SHAOXUAN, 1894

with a slightly concave lip and a recessed, slightly convex foot surrounded by a protruding flat footrim; painted on one main side with two scholars strolling along a country path towards a village, inscribed in regular script ‘[Executed in] the third month of the year jiawu by Ma Shaoxuan’, corresponding to 1894, followed by one illegible seal of the artist, and on the other main side with two swallows flying above the branches of a blossoming apricot tree, inscribed in a combination of regular and draft scripts with a poetic inscription followed by ‘[Executed] on a spring day in the year jiawu by Ma Shaoxuan,’ followed by another illegible seal of the artist; the jadeite stopper with a vinyl collar

Collection of Hugh Moss.
Sotheby’s London, 6th March 1979, lot 201.

Christie's, London, 1999.

Hugh Moss, ed., Chinese Snuff Bottles, no. 2, London, 1965, p. 39, fig. 2.
Ma Zengshan, Inside-Painted Snuff Bottle Artist Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1936): A Biography and Study, Baltimore, 1997, p. 30, figs. 2 and 3.
Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, vol. 4, Hong Kong, 2000, no. 576.

There are a few minuscule chips to the outer rim, one to the top of the neck. There is a tiny scratch across the lip. Apart from some light snuff stains on the painting is in overall good condition.
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Other than one inside-painted landscape with Zhou Leyuan’s signature, the present bottle is the earliest recorded version of Ma Haoxuan’s typical naïve landscape style, which was to appear regularly throughout his career. It is one of two alternative styles of landscape he painted, the other, as seen in much more detailed and complex paintings, is represented by two bottles from the Bloch collection, sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 25^th May 2011, lot 27 and 28^thNovember 2011, lot 62.

The poetic inscription accompanying the picture may be translated as follows:

When the apricots are about to bloom,
The swallows would come in pairs.