AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL 'ALBUM LEAF AND CALLIGRAPHY' DOUBLE-GOURD SNUFF BOTTLE MA SHAOXUAN, LATE QING DYNASTY

Wing Hing, Hong Kong, 1986. 

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, 1987, cat. no. 291.
Kleine Schätze aus China. Snuff bottles—Sammlung von Mary und George Bloch erstmals in Österreich, Creditanstalt, Vienna, 1993.
Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, British Museum, London, 1995, cat. no. 416.
Chinese Snuff Bottles in the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1997.
Christie's London, 1999.

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. 603.

The bottle has two barely perceptible chips to the outer lip and a polished out chip on the inner footrim. There are three minor chips in the footrim and a horizontal chip in the neck. There are some spoon scratches to the inside painting, mostly present in the top of the double gourd and some fading of pigments including some calligraphic areas.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This bottle may have been an earlier blank bottle acquired by Ma for painting, despite the raised frames on the lower, rectangular bulb, which would seem ideal to contain a painting. Other bottles of this form are known (see, for instance, White 1990, pl. 46, no. 3), and there is even one that is very similar to this, complete with the raised panels of the lower bulb (Au Hang 1993, no. 137).

The bird-on-a-branch painting bearing the name Bada shanren appears on Sale 3, lot 37, dated 1897, as does the rubbing, although in a different position. This appears to be a painting from reasonably early in Ma’s career, an impression borne out by the calligraphy, which is not quite as controlled and elegant as his finest writing from the first decade of the twentieth century onwards.

Bada shanren is the sobriquet of Zhu Da 朱耷 (1624–1705), one of the four celebrated monk-painters active during the early Qing period. The rubbing is of two incomplete sentences composed and written in regular script and quoted from Ouyang Xun’s composition, for which see Sale 2, lot 154, and Sale 3, lot 37.

The poem above the painting is one of the few by the sixth-century poet Jiang Zong 江總 to have stood the test of time. It was written when he was about to leave the capital (in the vicinity of modern Xi’an) and return southward to the Yangzhou area. The date was the ninth day of the ninth month, when one traditionally enjoyed the chrysanthemums and thought of home:

心逐南雲逝，形隨北雁來。故鄉籬下菊，今日幾花開。

My heart chases after the southbound clouds disappearing.
My form follows the geese from the north that come.
The chrysanthemums at the hedge in my old home-
How many are in bloom today?

On the other side, the folding fan painted with fish bears the signature of a nineteenth-century artist known for bird-and-flower paintings, Sima Zhong. One painting of his dated 1844 is in the National Palace Museum Sima Zhong’s dates are unknown, but the cyclical date yisi on this fan painting probably corresponds to 1869; 1809 would be too early to fit with his other dated works.

The poem below the fan is by Xu Hun 許渾 (b. 791?); however, as a work of calligraphy, it is signed by Xu Fu (1836 – 1896), a respected scholar, official, and calligrapher. The ‘winter day’ of the dinghai year during Xu Fu’s lifetime could have been any day from 15 November 1887 through 11 February 1888.

前山風雨涼，歇馬坐垂楊。何處芙蓉落，南渠秋水香。

On the hills before me, chill of breeze and rain.
To rest my horse, I sit beneath the trailing willows.
Somewhere lotus blossoms are dropping:
In the southern canal, the autumn waters have turned fragrant.

The poem in the upper bulb is a quatrain of six-syllable lines by Wang Wei 王維 (d. 761):

山下孤煙遠村；天邊獨樹高原。一瓢顏回陋巷，五柳先生對門。

Below the hills, a lone smoke, a distant village;
At the border of the sky, a single tree, a high plateau.
A Yan Hui with a single gourd in a humble alley;
The Master of Five Willows in the facing house.

Yan Hui, one of the disciples of Confucius, was famous for his equanimity in poverty—a single gourd for drinking being one of his few possessions. Wang Wei is probably comparing himself with Yan Hui. The Master of the Five Willows refers to Tao Yuanming 陶淵明, the recluse and chrysanthemum lover of the Eastern Jin period (317–420), credited with creating the genre of ‘Field and Garden’ poetry. Wang Wei’s poem is the fifth of seven poems under the title ‘The Joys of Field and Garden’, so it is appropriate for him to pretend that Tao lives right across the alley from him.