Fake Ma Shaoxuan bottles?

[Charles]

Hi everyone! I only recently started exploring the world of Chinese snuff bottles and this forum has been a great resource. I have come across six snuff bottles with the images of the founding emperors of different Chinese dynasties on the inside of the bottle and a poem on the opposite side. The bottles are 2.5 to 2.75 inches in height, signed Ma Shaoxuan, and appear to all have been done in the jiazi year which I believe corresponds to the year of the wood rat in 1924. In some images I can almost make out the Shao Xuan seal. If anyone can share their two cents on whether these are real or fake, it would be much appreciated. I have more images if you would like to see them. I do not want to bombard the forum on my first posting haha.

[George]

Hello and welcome to our forum Charles ...

Here is a link that talks about these bottles..

I can not see the added dark highlight brush strokes on yours, but perhaps you can if you look closer you will see them as talked about in the above link..

A couple of other things stand out for me about this one as well..  The portrait itself is way to large, and I am not familiar with ever seeing Ma Shaoxuan paint in "profile" like this.

You are correct about the year, 1924, and yes it does have a Ma Shaoxuan seal..

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

Dear Charles,
     Welcome from me as well.
     The three views posted show fake bottles. DO NOT BUY!
The calligraphy is by He Shuiqing, who does superb calligraphy in the style of Ma Shaoxuan. I have a number of bottles by him, signed properly with his own name. I can identify his calligraphy from specific ways that his differs from Ma's.
      I am not sure who did the portraits, but they are also wrong. I have 2 genuine Ma portraits myself, one of Tan Xinpei the actor, in quartz, from the Claudio Gentili collection; and the second of a Manchu prince, who was in the Qing govt. It is in glass from 1911, right at the end of the Qing Empire, and is from Agatha  Aronson's personal collection.
Best,
 Joey

[Charles]

Thanks for the help George and Joey! Definitely not buying them.

I took a look at the link George shared before posting to the forum. That's where a lot of my suspicion was arising from. They don't seem to have the detailed brush strokes you would see in the real deal. The portraits do not appear to be original works of art. When you Google these emperors you can find very similar images that could have been copied to the snuff bottles. These bottles don't look anything like the Ma Shaoxuan bottles I have seen on Sotheby's and Christie's either.

[Joey Silver / Si Zhouyi 義周司]

My pleasure, Charles.
    What I find especially offensive is the fact that the bottles were made to look aged, to trick the unwary.
Joey

[Wattana]

Hi Charles,

Welcome to the forum! Inside painted bottles are not my area of specialty, but I see you have already had some advice from our resident 'experts'.

Tom