Painted by Ma Shaoxuan 馬少宣 and dated December 1894; the bottle 1750–1860

Flawless rock crystal inside-painted with black ink and watercolors, of rounded rectangular form with a cylindrical neck and recessed foot. The front is decorated with the two sisters Da Qiao and Er Qiao seated on a bench reading a book, with the inscription Two Qiao 二喬 above, with a red seal in negative seal script Ma Guangjia yin (Seal of Ma Guangjia.) The Two Qiao Sisters, also known as "the great beauties of ancient China," are characters from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 三国演义written by Luo Guanzhong 罗贯中 in the 14th century. The reverse of the bottle is inscribed with thirty-nine characters in official script, including a poem signed Made by Ma Shaoxuan and dated December 1894 时在甲午嘉平月马少宣作. The poem reads:

君臣江左著英稱 The general (Sun Ce) and officer (Zhou Yu) of the You River Area are distinguished heroes.
姐妹於今身價增 The two (Qiao) sisters (their wives) are moving up in the world.
猶幸未遭銅雀鎖 It’s lucky these women were not locked in the Bronze Sparrow Tower.
朝朝歌吹望西陵 From dusk to dawn they can sing while overlooking Xiling.

Compare to a similar bottle dated to 1896 published in Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles: The Mary and George Bloch Collection, 5 volumes (Hong Kong: 1998), vol. 4 Inside Painted, part 2, cat. no. 578. The authors state that the Two Qiao subject was first painted by Ma Shaoxuan in 1894; therefore, the present bottle dating to December 1894 represents one of the first examples. An almost identical bottle with the same poem but dated 1895 sold at Sotheby's New York, Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Ann & John Hamilton and Other Private Owners, 27 March 2003, lot 363. Another fine example, dated 1897, is illustrated in Robert Hall, Chinese Snuff Bottles XI: The Snow Peaks Collection (London: 2005), cat. no. 100.

H: 6.2 cm

Provenance 起源: Linda F. Crawley

Published 发布: Asiantiques, A Fascination for Miniatures: The Linda F. Crawley Collection of Chinese Snuff (2008), cat. no. 29

Ref. 029-L0581

SOLD