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Signed Ma Shaoxuan, dated renyin year, mid-summer and corresponding to 1902
Of rectangular form tapering to a cylindrical neck, straight mouth rim and small aperture, elegantly painted with the 'two sisters' seated together on a stately kang couch reading a book, reversed by a colophon and dated renyin, signed Ma Shaoxuan.
2 1/2in (6.6cm) high, stopper
Footnotes
壬寅 (1902年) 馬少宣 水晶內畫「二喬共讀」圖鼻煙壺一件
「馬少宣」款
Provenance:
Property from an Important Private Collection, acquired in 2000
來源:
重要私人典藏
The subject matter of the famous Qiao sisters appears in Ma Shaoxuan's repertory about this time. See a closely comparable bottle from the Paul Braga Collection, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 24 November 2012, lot 6. See another crystal bottle of the same subject dated to 1895, part of the Maybelle Clark Macdonald Collection in the Portland Art Museum, accession no. 2009.59.22.
The subject of the Qiao sisters was a popular one with Ma Shaoxuan between 1896 to 1901 and later. According to the story in the , the Qiao sisters were the daughters of the Marquis of Qiao, who were then married to Zhou Yu and Sun Ce, the Marquis of Wu during the last years of the Eastern Han. The sisters were quite desirable and publicly popular. Often depicted by Ma sitting together on a daybed reading a book, the poses and colors of their robes differ. See two bottles formerly in the Collection of George and Mary Bloch, dated 1896 and 1902, published in Ma Zengshan, , Baltimore, 1997, pp. 32-33.