Lot 1135
Treasury 4, no. 579 (‘Flirtatious Cats’)
HK$75,000

Glass, ink, and watercolours; with a slightly concave lip and recessed convex foot surrounded by a protruding rounded foot rim; painted on one main side with a pair of badgers engaged in amorous play, inscribed with the title Shuanghuan tu 雙歡圖 (‘Picture of a Happy Pair’), followed by one seal of the artist, Shao, in negative seal script; the other main side inscribed with a poem, which is preceded by Dingyou chunri 丁酉春日 (A spring day in the dingyou year) and followed by Ti Shipin ju, Ma Shaoxuan 題詩品句，馬少宣 (‘Inscribing a poem and appraising lines’, by Ma Shaoxuan) followed by a further seal of the artist, xuan, also in negative seal script
Ma Shaoxuan or family, Studio for Listening to the Qin, Ox Street district, Beijing, spring, 1897
Height: 6.29 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.65/1.69 cm
Stopper: jadeite; vinyl collar

Provenance:
Arts of China, Hong Kong (1984)

Published:
Kleiner 1987, no. 285
JICSBS, Winter 1995, p. 7
Ma Zengshan 1997, p. 45, fig. 23
Treasury 4, no. 579

Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, London, October 1987
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May–June 1993
Christie’s, London, 1999

At first glance, it appears that the four characters before Ma Shaoxuan’s signature mean ‘Inscribing lines from the Shipin’, but neither the form nor the content of the poem is anything like the poems in the Ershisi shipin 二十四詩品 by Sikong Tu 司空徒 (from which Ma did copy lines in other works; see Sale 3, lot 27), and a much earlier work called Shipin is written in prose, not poetry. Hence, we have interpreted the four characters to mean ‘Inscribing a poem’ and ‘appraising the lines’. The content of the poem on this bottle indicates clearly that it relates to the fall of the Northern Song dynasty in the early twelfth century. It was written by the Song poet Lin Sheng 林升and is entitled Ti Lin’an di 題臨安邸 (‘Inscribed on the Lodging at Lin’an’), Lin’an being the Southern Song capital at Hangzhou. The same poem appears on Sale 7, lot 114, by Ma’s nephew Ma Shaoxian, where it is explained further.

Beyond the hills are more green hills, beyond the towers more towers still.
The songs and dances on the West Lake will never end.
The pleasure-seekers, intoxicated by the warm breeze,
Blithely confuse Hangzhou with Bianzhou.

These two badgers, in precisely this composition, are repeated several times in Ma’s career (for a miniature example, see Sale 5, lot 100) and also appear painted by Ma Shaoxian in 1921 in an identical composition and style. This suggests the possibility that this is an example of a subject that may have been painted for Ma Shaoxuan by his nephew Shaoxian or some other member of the family. That might account not only for the difference in calligraphy but for the careless attribution of the poem inscribed, which seems an unlikely mistake for Shaoxuan himself, who devoted his life to the study of calligraphy and poetry. It is also telling that when we find this poem again on a Ma work (Sale 7, lot 114), it is by Ma Shaoxian and not Ma Shaoxuan. With the number of possible artists involved, and Ma’s own decorative and commercial tendency, we may never be able to sort out precisely who did what and when.

The Chinese word for badger is huan 獾, which is homophonous with huan 歡, (happiness or joy). A great many pendants are made with badgers roughhousing as on this bottle.

This is not the Sotheby’s sale catalogue. This is a product of Hugh Moss for the purposes of this website. For the catalogue details please refer to Sotheby’s website or request a copy of a printed sale catalogue from Sotheby’s.