AN INSIDE-PAINTED ROCK CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE Ma Shaoxuan (1867–1939), dated...

AN INSIDE-PAINTED ROCK CRYSTAL SNUFF BOTTLE
Ma Shaoxuan (1867–1939), dated bingshen year (1896) and of the period
Decorated with a scholar reading by candlelight beside an attendant in a hut beneath a pine tree in the moonlight, the reverse with a lengthy inscription, signed Ma Shaoxuan, dated and with the seal xuan, stopper.
The bottle 6.4cm (2 1/2in) high. (2).

Footnotes

一八九六年 馬少宣 玻璃内畫鼻烟壺

The inscription painted inside the snuff bottle, signed by Ma Shaoxuan, is from the Song dynasty poet and politician Ouyang Xiu's 歐陽修 (1007-1072) work 'Ode to the Sound of Autumn' (秋聲賦), which reads:

錄秋聲賦
童子曰：星月皎潔，明河在天，四無人聲，聲在樹間。
余曰：噫嘻，悲哉！此秋聲也，胡為乎來哉。
丙申。馬少宣

And may be translated as:

'Transcribing the Ode to the Sound of Autumn'：
The boy servant says: The stars and moon shine bright. The Milky Way is high up in the sky. There is no human sound, only that of the forest.
I sigh: How sad it is. It is the sound of autumn. Is autumn already here?
Bing shen year.'