A large spinach-green jade 'dragon' seal with Manchu and Chinese inscriptions, Qing dynasty, Guangxu period | 清光緒 碧玉交龍鈕滿漢文孝穆成皇后尊謚寶璽 印文：孝穆溫厚莊肅端誠恪惠寬欽孚天裕聖成皇后之寶

Collection of Mrs Christian Holmes, New York.

Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman.

Christian Holmes 夫人收藏，紐約

哈特曼伉儷收藏

Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, cat. no. 150.

Robert Kleiner，《Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman》，香港，1996年，編號150

Chinese Jades through the Centuries: From Private and Museum Collections, China House Gallery, China Institute in America, New York, 1968, cat. no. 63.

《Chinese Jades through the Centuries: From Private and Museum Collections》，華美協進社藝廊，紐約，1968年，編號63

This seal belongs to a special group of seals known as yibao, or posthumous seals. Such seals were not created to be used during the lifetimes of emperors and empresses but rather were produced after their deaths as part of the system of ancestral temples and posthumous naming in China. The present was created in the Guangxu period, most likely in the first year (1875), to commemorate the first wife of his grandfather, the Daoguang Emperor, Empress Xiaomou Cheng (1781-1808), who passed away at the age of 28, before her husband ascended the throne.

In Chinese history, the worship and posthumous naming of emperors and empresses were an important component of court rules governed by explicit and strict regulations. Posthumous imperial seals were an essential category of artefacts created to be included in these rituals. In general, a posthumous title contained ten laudatory terms for a total of twenty Chinese characters. Usually twelve characters in length initially, an empress’s posthumous title typically begins with xiao [filialness], continues with a series of eulogising phrases, and ends with the temple name of her emperor. An emperor newly ascended to the throne was to add one or two laudatory phrases to the previous emperors and empresses. Seeing the potential for these titles to become unwieldy and confusing, the Qianlong emperor issued an edict upon ascending the throne that additions were only to be made within reason. By the Jiaqing reign, it was decided that titles would not be further lengthened, and the meanings and lengths of imperial posthumous titles were standardised.

In the 45th year of the Qianlong reign (1780), the Emperor decreed that a new set of posthumous imperial jade seals be made and dedicated at the Ancestral Temple in Beijing, and that the old ones would be dedicated at the Ancestral Temple in Shengjing. The old posthumous imperial seals had been made on an ad hoc basis and thus were of different colours and qualities; thus the new set would be of the same size and form, with finials in the shape of dragons and crafted uniformly from Khotan jade. By 1782, these sixteen new seals were completed and dedicated by the Qianlong Emperor at the Ancestral Temple. The following year, he ordered Yonglang, Prince Yi, and others to send the sixteen old jade albums and seals to the Ancestral Temple in Shengjing, thereby beginning the practice of maintaining two sets of imperial jade albums and seals between the former and current capitals. When a new emperor added to his predecessors’ posthumous titles, officials and craftspeople would be tasked with recarving.

It is recorded that in the 1st year of the Daoguang period, the Emperor added to the existing posthumous title for his late grandmother and decreed her to be named Empress Xiaomu Wenhou Zhuangsu Duancheng Kehui Kuanqin Futian Yusheng Cheng, the exact title inscribed on the present seal.