Lot 267

20th C. Chinese Agalmatolite Scholar's Seal - Landscape & Bagua

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Lot 267
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20th C. Chinese Agalmatolite Scholar's Seal - Landscape & Bagua
20th C. Chinese Agalmatolite Scholar's Seal - Landscape & Bagua
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20th C. Chinese Agalmatolite Scholar's Seal - Landscape & Bagua

Estimate: $400 - $600

Starting Bid: $200

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 7, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

East Asia, China, ca. 1900–1999 CE. A carved octagonal seal blank in pale agalmatolite, the soft aluminosilicate long favored by Chinese seal cutters for its yielding, waxy grain. Though it takes the form of a name seal, this ornament was made for the scholar's desk rather than the inkpad. Its faceted shafts carry a finely incised shan-shui landscape, mountains dissolving into mist above a scattering of trees, alongside four borrowed lines from Li Bai's frontier lament "Guan Shan Yue." One terminal bears an auspicious-character roundel framed in ruyi scrollwork; the base holds a taiji-and-bagua cosmological diagram, its recesses packed with iron-oxide earth pigment for contrast. Were it ever impressed, that cosmological face would yield a protective talisman rather than an identity, a literati conceit prizing symbolism and craft over utility. Size: 2.2" W x 3.2" H x 2" D (5.6 cm W x 8.1 cm H x 5.1 cm D).

The bagua, or eight trigrams, encircle the central taiji (yin-yang) symbol in an arrangement descended from the Yijing (Book of Changes). Carved onto a seal's base, this diagram transforms the object from an instrument of identity into a talismanic device: an impression of it would print a cosmological charm rather than a personal name, aligning the owner with the ordering principles of heaven and earth. The verse borrowed for the shafts, Li Bai's "Guan Shan Yue" (Moon Over the Mountain Pass), meditates on soldiers gazing homeward from the frontier, a canonical Tang lament whose pairing with a serene landscape reflects the literati taste for poetic melancholy inscribed on desk objects.

Agalmatolite, sometimes marketed as "pagodite" or grouped with soapstone, belongs to the dickite-kaolinite family of hydrous aluminosilicates. Its softness allows the crisp, deeply undercut incision seen here without the fracturing risk of harder stones.

Provenance: private Charlotte, North Carolina, USA collection

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Item # 203719

  • Condition: Some light rubbing, but, otherwise, intact and excellent with clear imagery.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000