Lot Essay
An ivory seal of this form with a similarly dated dedicatory inscription from the Palmer Collection included in the O.C.S. exhibition, The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, London, 1957, no. 371, is illustrated by S. Riddell, Dated Chinese Antiquities: 600-1650, London, 1979, pl. 190, where the inscription is translated, presented to the Lama Ch'ao-pa Tsang-pu in the second year of Xuande (1427). Another similar seal in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is illustrated by R.D. Jacobsen, Appreciating China, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, no. 197. It has an inscription dating it to the second year of Xuande (1428), and was made for the Tibetan lama, Ma so nan ling ch'an. Both of these seals appear to have been gifts at the time the lamas visited the court in Beijing, reflecting the close ties between the Chinese court and Tibet during this period.