A FINELY CARVED SOAPSTONE 'LION' SEAL QING DYNASTY |

of square form, surmounted by a recumbent lion with its head turned towards its left and resting on its haunches, the ferocious beast depicted with furrowed eyebrows above bulging eyes and flaring nostrils, further detailed with a long flowing mane, its muscular body accentuated with a pronounced spinal column terminating in a bushy tail, the seal face carved with a four-character inscription, the stone of an attractive warm variegated yellowish-orange colour

This seal is remarkable for the sensitively carved details, from the finely combed mane and knobbed spine, to the beast's animated pose and exaggerated features. A soapstone seal carved with a reclining lion and the seal face with the characters Xianfeng jianshang, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Classics of the Forbidden City. Imperial Seals of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing, 2014, pl. 239. Compare also two soapstone seals with a reclining lion, carved with its head turned sideways, sold in these rooms, the first, 27th April 1993, lot 281, and the second, 8th October 2006, lot 1148; and a slightly larger one, inscribed with a cyclical date corresponding to 1834, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th November 2009, lot 1872.