CHINA - Early 20th century Glass snuff bottle painted on one side with three goats under a weeping willow under a sun, and on the other with a forty-character poem on the subject of goats, signed Ma Shaoxuan (馬少宣), stamped "shaoxuan" and dated xinhai year (1911). H. 6 cm, cracked; in Chinese, no distinction is made between sheep and goats. Yang (羊) is the collective noun for lambs, ewes, rams, sheep and goats, and is a homophone of Yang (阳), the masculine principle or positive force. Thus, the representation of three goats or sheep, sanyang, and a rising sun, taiyang, form the rebus "the new year brings a change of fortune", sanyang Kaitai.