An imperial green jade 'Wufu wudai tang Guxi tianzi bao' seal Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | 清乾隆 乾隆帝御寶青玉交龍鈕方璽 印文：五福五代堂古稀天子寶

Property of a Gentleman

An imperial green jade 'Wufu wudai tang Guxi tianzi bao' seal

Qing dynasty, Qianlong period

士紳珍藏

清乾隆 乾隆帝御寶青玉交龍鈕方璽 印文：五福五代堂古稀天子寶

of square form, surmounted by a pair of addorsed dragons, each powerfully carved with bulging eyes and flaring nostrils above long whiskers, the mouth open to reveal its curled tongue between sharp fangs, with two long studded horns extending back over its head along a combed mane with finely incised details, the two scaly bodies tightly intertwined and crouching on their haunches, pierced through the centre with an aperture, the seal face carved with the characters Wufu Wudai Tang guxi Tianzi bao (Seal of the Seventy-Year-Old Son of Heaven of The Hall of Five Happinesses and Five Generations), the stone of a greyish-green colour flecked with paler inclusions

l. 13.1 cm, w. 13.1 cm