The lot comprises a malachite seal with a six-character inscription on the side reading xinghua chunyu Jiangnan, ‘apricot blossoms in the Spring rain in Jiangnan’, the last line of the poem Feng ru song, ‘wind in the pines’, composed by the Yuan-dynasty poet Yu Ji (1272-1348), followed by a signature reading Zuishi shannong dao, ‘carved by the tipsy, stone mountain farmer’, the pseudonym of Tang Yuanye, a contemporary seal carver, the seal face carved with the same poetic inscription as that on the side; a black stone seal surmounted by a bixi-form finial, with a three-character inscription reading Dongqing ke, 'carved by Dongqing' on the side, and an indeciperable inscription on the seal face; a square black stone seal with a finial in the form of a recumbent mythical beast, and a six-character inscription on the seal face reading zhengzhi daitian xinghua, ‘conduct in accordance with heaven’, taken from the Daoist text Wenchang dijun yinzhi wen, ‘exhortation of Wenchang’.
Malachite seal: 4 ¾ in. (12 cm.) high

A California private collection, acquired in Japan prior 1945