Asian artwork - Red Stamps

I bought a couple silk paintings at an estate sale a few weeks ago.

They have the red stamps that usually accompany the art. They also have a few other red stamps. Now I have read the red stamps can be from the artist, an art gallery that sold the art, and that it is typical in Asian culture for every new owner of the art to stamp with their individual seal as it comes into their possession and they use this method as a way to date and keep records of the art.

I'm not really sure what is correct.

This is the first time I have bought one with multiple stamps. One has 3 seals the other has 2.
The only matching seals are those that are below the (unmatched) signatures.

Can anyone enlighten me on Asian red seals?

 

Anyone have an idea on how to date them?

 

The red marks are called seal marks. They're made by hand-carved Chinese soapstone seals. Most people in Asia will probably own one of these things (I have two - one with my name in Chinese, one with my initials - Being Chinese, it comes with the ethnicity...).

The seal in Chinese culture is much like the seal in European culture - it bears the name of the person who owns it. In this case, the seal is likely to be that of the artist. I believe a system existed where various seals were used.

For example, the artist would stamp the work with his own name seal. Like a signature. And then he would also stamp it with his artist's seal, to indicate that he was the actual person who created this work.

If the artist was part of a particular studio or group of artists, then the studio seal would come next. If the artist had an artistic name (like a pen-name or something), then they would also include that seal.

Exactly HOW many seals were used, I'm not sure, but I believe that's how it worked. Most people in Asia (Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea specifically) will own at least one seal with their name carved into it for signing things. Much faster and neater than scribbling out a Chinese signature by hand (although my brother does that, and it looks like a drunken seismograph reading).