A RARE CHINESE SOAPSTONE 'TOAD' SEAL

18TH/19TH CENTURY

Carved as a toad sitting upon a square base, rendered with the details of the amphibian's knobbly skin, with a band of interlocking 'T' scrolls to the edge, the underside with nine seal script characters which read chen su lie zhang, han lai shu wang, qiu, 5.5cm.

Provenance: from an English private collection, Kent.

The characters form an excerpt from the Thousand Character Classic, or Qian Zi Wen, by Zhou Xingsi. The Thousand Character Classic is a poem which has been used to teach children Chinese characters since the sixth century. The poem is comprised of one thousand characters, with each being used only once.