Chinese jade carved seal

An image of Jade Seal. This seal is made of dark brown jade and has a square base and a turtle knob. The inscription can be read as ‘Chun-nan Hou (Marquis of Chun-nan). The design imitates a Han official seal but the carving of the inscription suggests it is a late Qing piece. In addition, no record of marquis Chun-nan can be found in any texts. As a result of railway construction in China during the late 19th to early 20th century, large numbers of antiques were unearthed from tombs. The production of antiquities like this jade seal were probably intended to satisfy the antique collecting craze of that era. Nephrite, height 1.95 cm, 1800-1900. Chinese.

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Jade Seal. This seal is made of dark brown jade and has a square base and a turtle knob. The inscription can be read as ‘Chun-nan Hou (Marquis of Chun-nan). The design imitates a Han official seal but the carving of the inscription suggests it is a late Qing piece. In addition, no record of marquis Chun-nan can be found in any texts. As a result of railway construction in China during the late 19th to early 20th century, large numbers of antiques were unearthed from tombs. The production of antiquities like this jade seal were probably intended to satisfy the antique collecting craze of that era. Nephrite, height 1.95 cm, 1800-1900. Chinese.

Image data

Accession Number: O.72-1946
Photograph copyright © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
Aperture: f/29.0
Focal length: 100
Camera: Canon EOS 5D
Photographer name: Michael Jones
Image height: 837 pixels
Image width: 1024 pixels
Processed with: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Windows)
Filesize: 88.58kB
Exposure time: 1/125
ISO Speed: 100
Fnumber: 29/1
Captured: 2007:12:01 12:05:05

Key words

19th Century animal animals carved Chinese Fitz_AA jade nephrite seal tortoise turtles

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