Lot Essay
The bottle is dedicated to Jing Xuan
For another Ma bottle painted with butterflies, dated 1902, see Sotheby's, New York, Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Kardos Collection, July 1, 1985, lot 144 in which the inscription is an allusion to the dream of Zhuengzi, who awoke to discover he was not the butterfly he ahd been dreaming he was, but a man. Suddenly it dawned on him that, the nature of consciousness being what it was, perhaps he really was a butterfly, and was now dreaming that he had awakened as a man
For another example, also dated 1895, see Robert W. L. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 213, pl. 282
For another Ma bottle painted with butterflies, dated 1902, see Sotheby's, New York, Important Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Kardos Collection, July 1, 1985, lot 144 in which the inscription is an allusion to the dream of Zhuengzi, who awoke to discover he was not the butterfly he ahd been dreaming he was, but a man. Suddenly it dawned on him that, the nature of consciousness being what it was, perhaps he really was a butterfly, and was now dreaming that he had awakened as a man
For another example, also dated 1895, see Robert W. L. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 213, pl. 282