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Hello all,

I recently picked this up from a collector's estate, and I would love to know more about it. It has an old red wax seal but I don't know where it is from... did other countries use the wax seal method or just China? The writing doesn't look Chinese to me but I don't know. Can anyone read or tell me what language it is? Or what it might be used for? I also have 4 other interesting wood pieces, some with wax seals as well, but they look more African than anything.

Thanks!

Hmm, no one's seen one like it before?

Hi Eric,

These are Tibetan woodcut blocks for printing pages from texts. (The photos are upside down; and of course the characters are backwards to print the right way). I can see some mantras.

best
Ian

Thank you so very much lan. Makes total sense now.

lam, how about this one? Is this Tibetan as well? I can see it being a woodblock for printing as well but it's much different with animals and shapes instead of writing. I also got three early carved wood sticks, with no engravings, just fancy carved handles, and remnants of some other wax seal on one. What could they be? Any ideas?

The two sticks with engraved figures are "zanpar", used for creating figures out of dough:
see this page:
http://www.ethnoantiques.com/wordpress/?cat=28
and the thin sticks are sticks for beating on a shaman's drum try this link:
http://www.ethnoantiques.com/wordpress/?cat=64
The wax seals look like Nepal seals indicating they were originally collected in Nepal.

Ian

Very neat! Ian you have been such a great help. Truly appreciate it, have a great week.

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