Frozen in Crystal
Ma Shaoxuan, Studio for Listening to the Qin, Ox Street District, Beijing, summer, 1898
Height: 6.1 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.54/1.60 cm
Stopper: aquamarine; silver collar
Provenance:
Beijing Wenboyuan, 15 December 2012, lot 276
Published:
Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent, The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection of Snuff Bottles. Part Two, Non-Imperial Influence over the Snuff Bottle Arts.
Colourless crystal with icy flaws, ink, and watercolours; with a flat lip and recessed flat, oval foot surrounded by a protruding flat, oval foot rim; painted inside on one main side with a flowering plant on a larger leaf of which a beetle crawls towards a dragonfly that has alighted on higher, smaller leaf, the other main side inscribed in regular script with a poem preceded by the date the date Wuxu xiari 戊戌夏日 (‘Summer day of the wuxu year’) and followed by the signature Ma Shaoxuan馬少宣 and one seal of the artist, Shaoxuan
The lines of the poem are read right to left across the top register and then right to left across the bottom register. They are taken from eight different parts of the Ershisi shi pin 二十四詩品 by Sikong Tu 司空徒 (837 – 908):
觀花匪禁, 着手成春. 生氣遠出, 流鶯比隣. 綠林野屋, 花草精神. 脫有形似, 明月前身.
Viewing the flowers can’t be forbidden;
And with a touch of the hand, springtime forms.
The qi of life goes out far;
Gliding orioles are close neighbours.
A rude dwelling in green forests,
The spirit and essence of flowering plants.
There is some resemblance of shape,
The bright moon is its former self.
