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Subject:Chinese hardstone hand seals
Posted By: Pat Thu, Feb 05, 2015 IP: 108.4.186.206
I recently purchase three Chinese hardstone hand seals at an estate sale. I tried to have them appraised; however, while the appraiser gave me his thoughts and value, he suggested that I contact an auction house with a Chinese department to take this further.
1. Can anyone recommend such an auction house or university qualified to evaluate these?
2. Can anyone on here help with age, timeline, etc.

The largest of the three is 7" tall
Very unusual.
You can follow this link for three photos in case they don't load here.










Link :https://www.flickr.com/photos/69738387@N02/15829223283/


Subject:Re: Chinese hardstone hand seals
Posted By: Kevin Sat, Feb 07, 2015
It belong's to "Qianlong". It is his personal seals.

Subject:Re: Chinese hardstone hand seals
Posted By: mikeoz Mon, Feb 09, 2015
Kevin,

While the seal on the left hand side readsYu Fu Zhen Guan, referring to the Imperial repository, these seals look to me typical examples of the seals made for the tourist trade. The quality of the carving and the quality of the stones are significantly lower than genuine Imperial seals.

Nowhere is the QianLong Emperor mentioned on any of the seals.

Unless you know something for sure, please do not make such wild statements.

Subject:Re: Chinese hardstone hand seals
Posted By: pat Tue, Feb 10, 2015
Thank you, mikeoz, that makes a bit more sense to me, and sounds more reasonable.
Have you ever seen any of these online? I am exhausted from searching for anything that looks even remotely similar.
Do you have any idea what the purchase price is as a tourist item?

One thing is for sure, all the searching and reading I've done about hand seals has been so interesting.

I am posting the other three seals in this collection in another post for translation.

Thank you again for your post.
Pat

Subject:Re: Chinese hardstone hand seals
Posted By: pat Mon, Feb 09, 2015
Hello, and thank you, Kevin, for your response.
I am so intrigued by the archaic appearance of these hand seals because so many that I see are made of jade and have a very refined appearance. I have a total of six which all appear to be from around the same period. I hope to take photos of the other three and will post them as well.

If you could, please clarify what you mean by "It is his personal seals."
I know little about these and certainly not able to translate the characters.
When you say "personal seals" do you mean seals that the Emperor would have put on his poetry, and not the Emperor's seal?

I hope to take photos of the other three and will post them as well.

All best, and my thanks,
Pat

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Subject:Re: Chinese hardstone hand seals
Posted By: pierrevdw Wed, Feb 11, 2015
Hi Pat,

I think it was a sarcasm to say that this was an Emperor personal seal.

The seals are not made of jade, not imperial and not old at all.

These are modern Chinese souvenir items of very small monetary value.

Cheers.


Subject:Re: Chinese hardstone hand seals
Posted By: Super Wed, Feb 11, 2015
This Kevin person was pulling your leg. I really do not believe any of these were made of hard stone, but soft stone and are basically modern fantasy pieces. You can do a scratch test to test them. The piece at the right has the best chance to be made of real jade. The chance of any one of them being the seals of Emperor Qianlong is zero. Sorry.

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