A RARE INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLEMa Shaoxuan Signed and dated gengzi year, corresponding to 1900 Ofpressed rounded rectangular shape, painted on one main face with a blue-robed boy wrestling a cat by its ears, which has a bird in its mouth with feathers flying, below an inscription and seal, shao , the reverse side with with a well-written forty-four-character inscription preceded by the date and followed by the signature and seal Shaoxuan ; stopper. 2 1/4in (5.7cm) high 庚子年(1900) 馬少宣 玻璃内畫玩童與貓鼻烟壺 Provenance: Robert Kleiner The Albemarle Collection Robert Kleiner, The Albemarle Collection (no. 43), 30 March 2006 Literature: Robert Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Albemarle Collection , Hong Kong, 1994 Exhibited: International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, Waldorf Astoria, New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 118 For another example dated to 1903 with the same scene in paler colors and with a different inscription on the reverse and dated to 1903, see Humphrey K.F. Hui, Lai Suk Yee and Peter Y.K. Lam, Inkplay in Microcosm, Inside-painted Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Humphrey K.F. Hui Collection , Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002, no. 48, where the authors discuss the influence of Bada Shanren on this work and the brilliant handling of the stressful emotions at play in this depiction. For two other rare examples of this subject matter, see Christie's, New York, The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part II, 16 March 2016, lot 417, for rock crystal bottle dated 1903 with the boy wearing a white robe and with a different poem to the reverse, and another, perhaps a studio work, sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 29-30 October 1995, lot 581.