Page 203 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

The seal face is inscribed with a four-character inscription Xieci yuanchun, which is a verse from a poem recorded in the Chinese
classic Yuefu shiji [Collection of Yuefu poetry] as being recited on a New Year banquet during the Sui dynasty. This four-character
verse, which can be interpreted as 'in celebration of the New Year', indicates the present seal was likely created for the occasion
of a New Year festival.

Although the present seal does not appear to be documented in Qing imperial records, it may have belonged to Empress Dowager
Cixi. As noted by Guo Fuxiang, Empress Dowager Cixi owned a large number of seals. Only a small group has been included in the
Cixi Baosou, and among all the seals of Cixi, a larger number of seals were made from either tanxiangmu or celadon jade from
Xiuyan, Liaoning province (see Guo Fuxiang, Gugong bowuyuan cang qingdai dihou xiyin pu Cixi juan [Catalogue of imperial seals of
the Qing dynasty. Cixi section], vol. 1, Beijing, 2005, p. 22). Compare a closely related tanxiangmu seal of a similar size that
belonged to Cixi, also with a separately carved double-dragon finial, inscribed to the seal face with a seven-character verse from a
poem by the Yuan dynasty scholar Weng Sen, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Gugong jingdian. Ming Qing dihou baoxi
[Classics of the Forbidden City. Imperial Seals of the Ming and Qing Dynasties], Beijing, 2008, pl. 280 (fig. 1), together with a
larger example, the 'Cixi taihou yulan zhibao' (seal for the appreciation of the Empress Dowager Cixi) seal, pl. 269.

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