Gu Gong Xin Pian

This little box of 100 postcards showing one hundred seals of the Qing emperors and empresses is volume five in what may have been a nine-volume set published by the Palace Museum in 1932 (the original seals are in the collection of the Palace Museum). No library seems to own a complete set of this publication. Volume 5, owned by the Freer and Sackler Library, includes a postcard for the imperial seal of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) [card 86]. Seals are an important tool for the study of Chinese art. Painters and calligraphers often added their seal to a painting, as would the owner or collector of that painting. A seal of a famous collector or connoisseur became an integral part of the work of art and often increased its value. As a result, over the course of several centuries, some Chinese calligraphy works and paintings became covered with different seals. Identifying these many seals on a Chinese painting is an important part of being able to establish both the artists and former owners of the work. Finding an imperial seal not only offers information for art historians but substantially increases the value of a painting. The postcards of imperial Qing dynasty seals in this set, including this volume, were an important scholarly tool for Chinese art historians for many years, supplemented only in 2005 with the publication of the six-volume 清代帝后璽印集成 [Collection of Qing Emperor and Empresses Seals].