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AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL 'PORTRAIT' SNUFF BOTTLE Ma Shaoxuan, seal Shaoxuan, 1910-1920 image 1
AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL 'PORTRAIT' SNUFF BOTTLE Ma Shaoxuan, seal Shaoxuan, 1910-1920 image 2
PROPERTY FROM THE FRANCINE AND BERNARD WALD COLLECTION OF FINE CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES
Lot 218

AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL 'PORTRAIT' SNUFF BOTTLE
Ma Shaoxuan, seal Shaoxuan, 1910-1920

17 March 2025, 09:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$15,360 inc. premium

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AN INSIDE-PAINTED CRYSTAL 'PORTRAIT' SNUFF BOTTLE

Ma Shaoxuan, seal Shaoxuan, 1910-1920
Of rounded rectangular shape, one side painted in black with a portrait of a figure wearing a traditional Chinese woman's robe with crane and pine decoration to the arms and chest, below a high collar and double strand pearl necklace, the hair tied in two buns, the reverse side painted in black, gray and green with a horse below a willow tree in a fierce wind that pulls the foliage and the horses main and tail to one side, a vertical four-character inscription reading Yi Lu Shun Feng followed by the artists vermilion seal, a short cylindrical neck with flat rim and regular mouth, supported on a short foot with wide flat oval foot rim and shallow flat base.
2 1/2in (6.3cm), high, stopper

Footnotes

1910-1920 馬少宣 水晶内畫人物肖像及「一路順風」圖鼻煙壺一件
《少宣》畫鈐款

Seal: Shao-Hsuan and inscription Yi Lu Shun Feng (one path, favorable wind)

It is possible that the portrait in this bottle might be that of the Beijing Opera actor, Wang Yao-ch'ing (1882-1954). For a fascinating insight to the art of portrait painting in bottles, see Emily Byrne Curtis, Reflected Glory in a Bottle, New York, 1980, Chapter Seven, pp. 81-94 where a portrait of the male actor, Wang Yao-ch'ing, in female roles is discussed and illustrated. See p. 88, fig. 120 for a possible parallel to ours.

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