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Hi,

(My previous msgs have both said that they timed out. If duplicates, my apologies!)

I am posting in hopes that some can help me verify the age and authenticity of my wax seal. As you can see from the collection of images, I have no clue which is the stamp's top/bottom. I would love to know what it says! I am interested in selling it but first need to figure out if it is authentic and worth anything.

Background: A collector of vintage fabric stamps already, I came across this seal in a Vancouver antique shop almost a decage ago. The tag says that it is a 'Wood Stamp with Handle," from the Shangxi Province of China, and dated to the mid-Qing Dynasty. The clerk added that the rather than a stamp it is actually a wax seal. He also added that it had been acquired from American-born children of deceased Chinese immigrants who were not interested in keeping these kinds of ties to their own cultural history.

Thanks in advance for any guidance or information anyone can give me. It is much appreciated!

your photo in the middle row at the left shows how this object should be oriented, but I can't read it in reverse like this except that the bottom is the character "tang" for "hall". As you say, this would not be used to mark calligraphy or painting, but I'm not sure what it would be used for. What are its dimensions?

We were told that this is a Wax Seal, which is actually corroborated in research that I found from that dynasty/time period. The dimensions in inches without the handle are appr 10in L x 5in W x 1in D. With the handle, it is appr. 3.5 in D.
Thanks for your input.

Yea, definitely some sort of stamp. Obviously the spelling of Shangxi is wrong and they meant Shanxi province...Looks like walnut which would be correct for Shanxi. I have seen tons of these around in the past (and sold tons of them to wholesale customers) years back but I cannot remember for the life of me what they were specifically used for. There is no remnants of ink on it, so it likely wasn't used for printing (trust me - the ones used for printing can be cleaned 100 times and they will have color left of them).

I believe your wooden chop from top to bottom can be:

山約堂 Shan Yao Tang

約 can be the short form for 藥 or 药 which means medicine

however, 山藥 together can mean Dioscorea opposita which is a kind of Chinese yam that can be used either fresh or dried up as medicine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_opposita

堂 can mean hall, a large room, it is always used at the end with other words to represent a church,a society, a town hall, a college (學堂) or a shop.

Here, 山約堂 can mean anything including some kind of churches or the name of a large meeting place.

But if it is indeed used with 山藥 which can extend to mean herbal medicine, then 山藥堂 can mean Herbal (medicine) Shop.

Of course, I can be wrong because cursive Chinese is very hard to interpret since each calligrapher can do them very differently. May be others can render their opinions. I cannot find anything on it though. Must be old. Super

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