.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Each square columnar seal is surmounted by a recumbent qilin, and carved on the seal face with a five-character inscription taken from Zhang Heng’s Guitian fu, ‘Return to the Field’.
The lively and detailed carving style of the qilin finials closely resembles the mythical beast finial of the Kangxi 'Yuanjianzhai' seal sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 6 April 2016, lot 3102; the treatment of the facial features, mane, and tail are remarkably similar. The unctuous texture and beige-white tone of the present seals may also be compared to a Yongzheng white Shoushan square seal in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Ming Qing dihou baoxi, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 196, no. 182 (fig. 1). The reference seal's finial—a recumbent elephant—shares the same style as the present pair, notably in the recumbent position, the tail swept to one side, and the satiny polish of the stone.
The lively and detailed carving style of the qilin finials closely resembles the mythical beast finial of the Kangxi 'Yuanjianzhai' seal sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 6 April 2016, lot 3102; the treatment of the facial features, mane, and tail are remarkably similar. The unctuous texture and beige-white tone of the present seals may also be compared to a Yongzheng white Shoushan square seal in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Ming Qing dihou baoxi, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 196, no. 182 (fig. 1). The reference seal's finial—a recumbent elephant—shares the same style as the present pair, notably in the recumbent position, the tail swept to one side, and the satiny polish of the stone.