CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, IMPERATRICE CIXI (1835-1908)

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CACHET IMPERIAL EN SERPENTINE
CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, IMPERATRICE CIXI (1835-1908)
De forme carrée, la prise en forme de dragon bicéphale, la gueule ouverte et menaçante reposant sur les griffes acérées des pattes avant, le corps couvert d'écailles, percé de part en part pour laisser passer un cordon en soie, la base sculptée des caractères Ci xi huang tai hou yu lan zhi bao ('Sceau Impérial d'inspection de l'Impératrice Cixi') ; égrenures
Largeur: 12,8 cm. (5 in.)

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No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT payable at 19.6% (5.5% for books) will be added to the buyer’s premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

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AN IMPERIAL SERPENTINE SQUARE SEAL
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, EMPRESS CIXI (1835-1908)

拍品專文

In China, the use of a jade seal denoted the importance of its Imperial owner. Documents marked with seal such as the current one conveyed direct Imperial authority as the mark was the physical representation of the mandate of its owner. When an empress was appointed or honored with a laudatory title, she was presented with a jade seal in lieu of a gold seal or book. Because of the high status of the mark of the seal, during the Qing dynasty, the punishment for forging an Imperial seal was death. Although it seems that no serpentine seal from Cixi period has been published, see two related examples made of green jade and dated Daoguang and Guangxu periods, one inscribed with the four characters Xuan Huang Hou Bao (Seal of the Xuan Empress) illustrated in S. Bernstein, Collecting Chinese Jade, San Francisco 1995, p.79, pl.42 and the other inscribed with the legend Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyu Zhuangcheng Shougong Qinxien Chongxi Huangtaihou zhi bao (honorific title given to Cixi) in Empress Dowager Cixi: Her Art of Living, p. 3