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Bottle ID: 00903
MA SHAOXUAN, PAIR OF CRANES IN LANDSCAPE W/INSCRIPTION
Date: 1897
Height: 66 mm
Crystal, ink and watercolors, of flattened rectangular form with rounded shoulders, painted on the inside with on one side, a pair of cranes perched upon the thick gnarled trunk of a majestic pine curving above large white peonies; the reverse with a four column inscription in kaishu reading:
'In the first month of summer, the sixth year of the Zhenguan period (632 AD), the Emperor (Taizong) moved for his summer retreat to the Palace of Nine Achievements, which was formerly the Sui Palace of Benevolence and Longevity. At this lofty palace, which crowns the mountain, a watercourse was dammed to form a pool.'
with the date dingyu year, signed 'Ma Shaoxuan, Made at the Capital' with one seal Shaoxuan.
Similar Examples:
Moss, Hugh, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang. A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles - The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 2000, p. 405, no. 592.
Provenance:
Asian Art Studio
Sotheby's Hong Kong, October 30, 2000, lot 592
Guo'an Collection, Inventory no. 232
Stadsauktionen, Stockholm, 1973
Exhibited:
Annual convention ICSBS Toronto, October 2007
Published:
Ma Zengshan. Inside-Painted Snuff Bottle Artist Ma Shaoxuan [1867-1939],
A Biography and Study, 1996, p. 49, fig. 33.
Kinesiska snusflaskor, Antik & Auktion, October, 1978, p. 64.
The snuff bottle world is fortunate to have the biography of Ma Shaoxuan written by his grandson, Ma Zengshan, where the life of Ma has been pieced together by the remaining members of the family, together with some of his possessions and painting materials inherited by them. Ma Shaoxuan was born in 1867 and began painting bottles professionally when he was eighteen. According to his grandson, he began painting after seeing examples of bottles that a relative, who was an antique dealer, owned. At the apparent suggestion of his father, along with his two older brothers, he began to study how these bottles were produced. Born into a prosperous Muslim family, Ma had learned the arts of calligraphy and painting since he was a young boy. According to Ma Zengshan, Ma Shaoxuan was never a student of established inside painted artists such as Zhou Leyuan, although he did visit their nearby studios in order to observe their techniques and the tools they used. By 1897, Ma's work had reached its heights artistically and he was well-known in Beijing both for his painting and the calligraphy on the 'reverse' of his bottles. This bottle is significant not just for its fine quality, but also for being the only recorded bottle by Ma depicting cranes and pine, although he painted other pairs of birds during this period and particularly in 1897.
The inscription is taken from the beginning of a composition engraved on an early Tang stele entitled 'Ode to the Sweet Spring at the Palace of Nine Achievements' by Ouyang Xun (577-641 AD). Ma was well versed in the classics and would have been inspired by this inscription, using it a number of times over the years accompanying different subjects and even in 'portrait' bottles for which he became renowned.