Atomo Collection

• Crystal
  
  
• Flattened rounded rectangular
  
  
• Snuff bottle with a long inscription on both the sides excerpted from "The Prologue of the Orchid Pavillon" from the eminent calligrapher Wang Xi Zhi. Signed Ma Shaoxuan, dated Summer of the year Wu Xu (1898) with a seal.
  
  The inscription may be translated as follow:
  
  'In the ninth year of Yonghe (corresponding to 353) on the Festival of Gui Wei, at the start of a spring dawn, we met at the Orchid Pavilion at Hui Ji Mountain to drink and chase away the evil spirits. Groups of sages arrived, and both the elderly and the young gathered. There were tall mountains, lush trees and bamboo forests, and clear sparkling streams meandered through the landscape. Although......
  
  .......clear, with a gentle breeze. Lifting one's head, one could observe the magnitude of the universe, and when one looked down, one could see the riches of the earth. A mere look at one's surroundings was a treat for the senses and brought joy.'
  
  Ma Shaoxuan in the mid-summer of the Wu Xu year' (1898).

Period

• 1898

Size

• Height cm. 6.1
• Mouth cm. 0.4
• Lip cm. 1.8

Stopper

• Glass with vinyl black ring

Provenance

• Charles V. Swain collection
• Christie's Paris - 21 November 2008 - Lot no. 50

Exhibited

• 41st Convention I.C.S.B.S., Dublin, October 2009
• Palazzina delle Arti: Museo del Sigillo (Seal Museum), La Spezia - Italy, November 2010 - January 2011

Published

• "Inside-Painted Snuff Bottle Artist Ma Shaoxuan" - Ma Zengshan - 1997 - p. 46 - fig. 25 e 26
• Atomo Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, Foti, no. 22, p. 27
• Journal ICSBS - Autumn 2010 - Vol XLII number 2 - P. 29 - Fig. 2