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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 10230333, member: 2844&quot;]I said I wouldn&#039;t, but I just can&#039;t take so much misinformation. My only purpose is to set some things straight, not to take part in any discussion. So this will be my only post in this thread.</p><p><br /></p><p>As Mr Nagy clearly said, hunt&#039;s seal is after an original once owned by the Kangxi emperor.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just to be clear: Emperor Kangxi had seals in different palaces and retreats. He also had different seals for different occasions to chose from within every palace. So did the other emperors.</p><p>Hunt&#039;s seal was never owned by Emperor Kangxi.</p><p><br /></p><p>The original Kangxi seal that was the inspiration for hunt&#039;s seal is shown in Marote&#039;s post. It came up for auction at Sotheby&#039;s Hongkong division in 2016. It is the seal Kangxi used in his calligraphy studio &#039;Yuanjianzhai&#039;, one of his retreats. Calligraphy is practised as an art in China, and it was one of Kangxi&#039;s favourite pastimes.</p><p>The trigrams are part of the pursuit of harmony in one&#039;s surroundings and as a result within oneself. Perfect for a retreat where the emperor would like to relax and devote precious free time to a calming pastime.</p><p><br /></p><p>About the claim that the trigrams on the seal are the Bagua: Since there are only two trigram figures, the ones relevant to the specific situation in the retreat, they are not the Bagua. Bagua means eight trigrams (= eight trigram figures).</p><p><br /></p><p>Kangxi did not burn kilos of incense while practising the art of calligraphy. Just try burning so much incense that it fills the room with fatty smoke and then practise calligraphy in that smoke-filled room.</p><p><br /></p><p>Seals that belonged to, and were used by, the emperors were always clean, and never had &quot;patination from being in an incense burned filled room for a long time&quot;. The imperial household just wasn&#039;t that careless, they paid attention that every item was kept in perfect condition in keeping with the status of the emperor.</p><p><br /></p><p>More on the original seal, the auction of the emperor&#039;s seals and the record of seals in the link below. Scroll down the page for the info on the Yuanjianzhai seal:</p><p><a href="https://enfilade18thc.com/2016/04/07/at-auction-the-kangxi-emperors-mandate-of-heaven-seal/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://enfilade18thc.com/2016/04/07/at-auction-the-kangxi-emperors-mandate-of-heaven-seal/" rel="nofollow">https://enfilade18thc.com/2016/04/07/at-auction-the-kangxi-emperors-mandate-of-heaven-seal/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>About not trusting Sotheby&#039;s: That is of course a personal choice. But should one really make such a choice based on the number of imperial seals that are auctioned by Sotheby&#039;s?</p><p>Fact is that the imperial seals that come up for auction at Sotheby&#039;s are nearly always seals that were used by imperial officials, so civil servants. China had a huge empire that was administrated to the smallest detail. There are countless imperial seals because there were countless imperial officials at any given time.</p><p>Just to compare, at this moment a small country like the Netherlands has over 485,000 civil servants.</p><p><br /></p><p>Btw, there are Chinese round seals, I have two myself. Neither of mine were ever owned by emperor Kangxi, nor is hunt&#039;s.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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