My Chinese signature stamp …

I’m sure you remember my good friend Lisa who taught school in China this past year. Actually she and her husband Glen are going back again in the Fall but right now she is in the States and we had a wonderful reunion visit this week.

I was surprised and delighted when she presented me with the gift that you see pictured here. (It’s much smaller than it appears in the picture. The whole box is just 3 ½ x 1 ½ inches.) It is a signature stamp and the little square piece of paper shows what prints … which, in this case is actually my name written in Chinese !

In China artists stamp their paintings (and a lot of their correspondence, and even legal documents) with their own individual signature stone, using the traditional red ink. It made me wonder if this is in lieu of their handwritten signature or if they do both. Perhaps someone reading this can enlighten me on that.

The stamp is quite heavy and actually looks like polished marble but Lisa and I knew that couldn’t be possible because of the carving. I did a bit of research after she left and found that it is soapstone.

As I was writing this I realized that the seal would make a wonderful paper-weight and I decided to display it on my writing desk. I paired it with a tiny box that Douglas gave me years ago after his last trip to Japan. It contains a very small calligraphy brush and ink stone. Don’t they look like a perfect match? I will treasure them both.