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Greetings, I have been trying to identify an artist of a scroll I have lived with for many years. I do not know which is the artists seal or those of a collector. Is there a protocol for location? Any help is greatly appreciated. I'll add a few more pics. Thank you.

Here are the other seals- top right and the ones on the left- Thanks!

three of the four seals are imitating those applied to paintings by the Qianlong emperor, as I suggested in my earlier post, but I'm not sure of the fourth seal off the top of my head.

The artist's seals normally follow the artist's inscription, as here. However, occasionally collectors and others contribute inscriptions on the painting surface and follow them with their own seals, so it's not always obvious if you don't read Chinese. Also, artists (and collectors) have multiple seals with multiple legends and sometimes impress more than one or two around a painting. Collectors hopefully have the good taste to impress seals in less conspicuous areas of a painting, usually in quiet corners, sometimes even on the mounting rather than on the painting surface itself, though subsequent remounting can eliminate these.

Your picture is a bit of a fantasy piece, however: it is signed as if by Qing painter Zheng Xie, also known as Zheng Banqiao, who is known for his bamboo paintings, which this does not resemble (Google has lots of examples for comparison). Confusingly, the seal at the bottom right of the picture supposedly is that of Zhao Mengfu, an important Yuan painter, calligrapher, civil servant, poet, etc. This alone makes your picture impossible. I imagine it has been impressed here to give the picture an association with China's great aesthetic tradition rather than as a serious attempt to deceive. Not sure what the other seals are, but given the "Zhao" seal, I imagine they might be imitation imperial seals ascribed to either the Qialong emperor (18th c), his painting inventory seals, or to the Jiaqing or Xuantong emperors (19th and 20th c), as these Qing emperors most frequently impressed seals on surviving paintings from the imperial collection.

Thanks for the informative reply!

Hi Rat,

I am sorry I can't contribute more on these seals as I am in hospital and a long way from my reference dictionaries. However, my first observation is that they all appear to have been made with the same 'mud'. And when you consider the amazing shades of red available in seal mud, is unlikely that different people would all have exactly the same shade.

I will try to identify more of the characters, and will post here, but ask for your patience.

Someone has had a lot of fun collecting or copying all these seals.

Mikeoz

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