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Lot Essay
Small seals of this type were made for personal use, and based on the evidence of such seals being found in tombs next to the deceased, appear to have been worn suspended from the owner's belt. They were made from jade, gold, silver, gilt-bronze and bronze. A small silver tortoise seal of slightly larger size is illustrated by W.P. Yetts, The Eumorfopoulos Collection, vol. II, London, 1930, pl. LXV, no. B 289, along with two small gilt-bronze chimera seals, nos. B 288 and B 290. Another similar chimera seal dated Eastern Han is illustrated in Kaikodo Journal, Autumn 1999, no. 48, where another, p. 196, fig. 3, included in the Special Exhibition of Han Dynasty Artifacts, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1997, is also illustrated. The present gilt-bronze tortoise seal is similar in type to one found in an Eastern Han tomb at Hanjingxian, Jiangsu, illustrated in Kaikodo Journal, op. cit., p. 305, fig. 5.