AN INSIDE-PAINTED GLASS SNUFF BOTTLEMa Shaoxian Signed and dated jiachen year, corresponding to 1904 Of rounded rectangular shape, painted on one main face with two felines playing vigorously in a flowery field below the title Shuang Huan Tu (Double Happiness painting) and on the other with a thirty-two-character inscription praising spring's subtle greenness in the capital, preceded by the date, and followed by the signature and seal Shao ; stopper. 2 1/4in (5.6cm) high 甲辰年（1904） 馬少先 玻璃內畫雙歡圖帶詩文鼻煙壺 Provenance: Sotheby's, New York, 17 September 1996, lot 116 Exhibited: International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society Convention, New York, 5-9 November 2013, no. 69 For another example with the identical lengthy inscription and date and depicting the same scene of a pair of cats, see Hugh Moss, Victor Graham and Ka Bo Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 4, Part 2, Inside Painted , Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 490-492, no. 626, where the authors discuss Ma Shaoxian's career in relation to that of his more illustrious uncle, Ma Shaoxuan. Ma Shaoxian's earliest recorded dated bottle appears to be 1899. He appears to have worked both at his uncle's studio, where he sublimated his output to that of his uncle and signed using his uncle's signature, and later at his home in Xuannan, a district of Beijing, only reverting to his own name in bursts. The subject on our bottle, two playful cats, was first painted by his uncle in 1897 and became a family studio standard. The poem on the reverse side wasposed by Han Yu (768-824 CE), a well-known Tang literary figure and philosopher. For a translation of the poem see ibid., p. 492. For other examples of the same subject by Ma Shaoxuan, see two others in this collection, nos. 247 and 301.