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Lot Essay
Ma Shaoxuan (1867-1939) was one of the most technically accomplished artists of the Beijing School of snuff-bottle painting, which was founded by Zhou Leyuan and included other leading artists, such as Ding Erzhong, Ye Zhongsan and Zi Yizi. Besides his famous monochromatic portrait bottles of leading Qing officials and personalities, Ma first appears to have painted bottles of the present design, with ordered rows of paintings and rubbings, in 1895, as well as a second type with a scattered grouping of fragmentary and worn documents. These depictions appear opposite calligraphic inscriptions, as seen here, and/or landscapes or figural scenes. For another bottle with a similar depiction of paintings in a symmetrical order, with only the top fan painting varying from this example, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part 2, Inside Painted, Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 379-80. A bottle featuring scattered documents on one side, and a poem on the reverse, was sold in these rooms, 24-25 March 2011, lot 1578.
The authors note, ibid., p.380, that Ma's ordered depictions of paintings and calligraphy reflect the artist's wish to display his mastery of the calligraphic styles of great artists of the past. The inscription on the opposite side appears on many of Ma's bottles of various subjects, and is an excerpt from A Preface to a Collection of Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion (more commonly known as the Lanting Preface), an essay by Wang Xizhi (c. 307-365) about a literary gathering held on the third day of the third month in the ninth year of the Yonghe era (352) at the Orchid Pavilion in Shanyin (Shaoxing in Zhejiang province). It may be translated as:
On this day the sky is clear, the air fresh and the fine breeze most pleasant. Looking up we could behold the vastness of the universe. Bending down [our heads] we could observe the abundance of different kinds of things and species. This is why when we look around at our leisure we could enjoy to the utmost through seeing and listening. Truly how delightful it is!
The authors note, ibid., p.380, that Ma's ordered depictions of paintings and calligraphy reflect the artist's wish to display his mastery of the calligraphic styles of great artists of the past. The inscription on the opposite side appears on many of Ma's bottles of various subjects, and is an excerpt from A Preface to a Collection of Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion (more commonly known as the Lanting Preface), an essay by Wang Xizhi (c. 307-365) about a literary gathering held on the third day of the third month in the ninth year of the Yonghe era (352) at the Orchid Pavilion in Shanyin (Shaoxing in Zhejiang province). It may be translated as:
On this day the sky is clear, the air fresh and the fine breeze most pleasant. Looking up we could behold the vastness of the universe. Bending down [our heads] we could observe the abundance of different kinds of things and species. This is why when we look around at our leisure we could enjoy to the utmost through seeing and listening. Truly how delightful it is!