A BLACK STONE SEAL, SIGNED WEN PENG LATE QING DYNASTY / REPUBLIC PERIOD

possibly meigen stone, the seal face carved in baiwen with seven characters reading shujuan mochi qingsuoshi (the mind residing in books and ink), repeated in running script on one side, followed by a two-character signature Sanqiao, the other side with an inscription reading Jiajing suizai yiwei huangzhong jiwang (sixteenth day of the eleventh month, yiwei year, Jiajing), one plain side with a small drilled hole

Collection of an American Northeastern private collector, acquired between the 1950s and 1960s (by repute).

In addition to all of these accomplishments, Wen was also widely regarded as the founder of the Wumen school of seal-carving and was particularly renowned for his immense contribution towards scholar seal-carving. According to the late Ming publication Yinrenzhuan [Stories of the Seal Carvers] by Zhou Lianggong (1612-1672), Wen originally used ivory to make seals. Due to the hardness of the material, Wen was limited to only the writing stage, and the actual carving would have to be performed by an ivory artisan. On one occasion, Wen discovered a group of Qingtian stones, a type of soapstone found in Qingtian, Zhejiang province that was widely used by artisans to make small stone carvings. Wen soon began experimenting with these stones. The softness of the soapstone allowed him to execute the carving entirely by himself, and thus ensured the integrality of his creation. He drew inspirations from Qin and Han dynasty seals and eventually developed a unique carving style that greatly influenced innumerous scholar-carvers of the later period.