Name Chop and Mood Seals
Your Own Name Chop
Your name chop is your very own individually carved name seal with characters selected by the carver to best convey your first name in Chinese. The set has red ink, a case and the soapstone upon which your personal name in Chinese is carved.
Shop Mood Seals
Please check the mood Mood Seal description for stamp size. Various browser characteristics may distort the image size.
If there is a special mood seal you do not see, we will make every effort to obtain it for you.
Learn more on Mood Seals
This personal authentication seal says “Auspicious Orchid,” my Chinese name. It is Red with a White background carved in relief.
More on Mood Seals
By the Education Department of the Shanghai Museum
Ancient Seal Script
Regular script
Simplified Seal Script
Hanging-needle seal script
Mou seal script
"fiudie" seal script
Bird-and-insect script
Xi: It is one of the Chinese names for seals, referring to both official and private seals before the Qin dynasty (221 BC), but only to emperors’, empresses’ and princes’ seals after Qin. Other officials’ seals were called Yin then. Empresses’ seals were also called Bao in and after the Tang dynasty (618-907).
Official seal: In ancient China, official seals, as a kind of certificate, were offered to the officials at the time when they were appointed to the posts. So, their seals vary in size, material and shape with their posts. Different ages have different styles. The Qin and Han seal characters were made by carving or casting; the Sui and Tang characters were carved in low relief; the Song seals have date marks; and the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing seal characters are mostly carved in Jiudie seal script with multiple and parallel strokes. Furthermore, seal knobs also vary with ages.
Private seal: In ancient times, private seals were taken as a kind of erupt of a person’s identity. They could have different contents for different functions, such as seals of a person’s name, a studio name, an auspicious phrase, a zodiac animal, an idiom and a collection appraisal mark.
Red legend and white legend: Seal characters carved in relief are called the red or positive legend as they are in red when being stamped on paper; otherwise they are called the white or negative legend. The seal shown at the bottom corner on the right of this page is a good example with two legends on one seal. The character on the right is the white legend and the one on the left is the red.
Design seal: Seals carved with a design of figures, creatures, vehicles and architectures belong to a special type of private seals. It was popularly used as auspicious wishes or design mould stamps in the Warring States period and Han and Jin dynasties (475 BC—AD 420).
Horse brand stamp: Being a special type of ancient Chinese seals, horse brand stamp looks similar to ordinary seals but was only used to brand a horse for identification .
Seal knob: Most of ancient Chinese seals have a pierced knob in shape of a nose, an arched tile, a trapezoid, a serpent, a turtle, a camel or a horse on the top for handling and stringing. It could also be regarded as rank marks of official seals. Private seal knobs have more varieties.
Seal inscription: In addition to the seal characters, some seals also have inscriptions on the top and sides. The Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan (581-1368) seal inscriptions usually give the date and content explanation. And the Ming and Qing (1368-1911) ones have more contents as an art component of the seals.
Clay seal: It is a piece of clay pressed with certain patterns or characters and fixed across an opening of a packet or envelope. During the period from Warring States period to Jin dynasty (475 BC—AD 420), the formal and official writings written on bamboo and wooden strips were tied up by a rope and sealed with a piece of pressed clay across the opening. But this system gradually declined in the Southern and Northern (Eastern Han dynasty 25-220)
Literati’s Seal Carving
It is a kind of art executed on seals, the beauty of which is expressed by its calligraphy, composition and techniques of carving. In the period of the Song and Yuan dynasties (960-1368), stamping seals on the works of painting and calligraphy came into vogue among painters, calligraphers and painting and calligraphy collectors. In addition to the personal names, studio names, collection appraisal signs and set phrases were also carved on seals. So, many intellectuals did their own creative carving of seals on stones, and a group of celebrated literati seal carvers had grown up by the mid Ming period of 16th century. Their distinguished styles in carving, composition and calligraphy exerted great influences on later seal carvers and various seal carving schools formed after them.
Wen Peng( 1498-1573), the originator of the Ming literati seal carving and good also at painting and calligraphy,made a great contribution to the development of Chinese seal carving. His seal characters look very delicate and neat.
Ding Jing( 1695-1765), a calligrapher and seal carver of the Qing dynasty, was regarded as the founder of the Zhejiang seal carving school. He imitated the seal carvings of the Han (206 BC-AD 220), Song and Yuan (960-1368) dynasties and initiated the simple and bold style of cutting carvin
Wen Peng( 1498-1573), the originator of the Ming literati seal carving and good also at painting and calligraphy,made a great contribution to the development of Chinese seal carving. His seal characters look very delicate and neat.
Ding Jing( 1695-1765), a calligrapher and seal carver of the Qing dynasty, was regarded as the founder of the Zhejiang seal carving school. He imitated the seal carvings of the Han (206 BC-AD 220), Song and Yuan (960-1368) dynasties and initiated the simple and bold style of cutting carvin
He Zheng (1530-1606), a seal carver of the Ming dynasty, followed Wen Peng at his early period of seal carving and later formed his own steady and vigorous style with the influence of Qin and Han (221 BC-AD 220). As most masters of his followers were natives of Huizhou (today’s Anhui area), people call them the Huizhou school..
In the late Qing period (19th century), blazing new trails and pursuing individuality was the main trend of seal carvings. The carvers assimilated the techniques of previous masters and brought forth their individual styles in practice. Wu Changshuo’s bold and vigorous style is a very good example. This trend has a deep influence on modern seal carving.
DengShiru (1743-1805) made himself a famous seal carver of the Qing dynasty out of his outstanding achievement in calligraphy. He broke free from the convention of the Qin and Han seals and established a very natural and graceful style for seal carving. As later so many Qing seal carvers followed his style, the Deng school of seal carving came into being.
DengShiru (1743-1805) made himself a famous seal carver of the Qing dynasty out of his outstanding achievement in calligraphy. He broke free from the convention of the Qin and Han seals and established a very natural and graceful style for seal carving. As later so many Qing seal carvers followed his style, the Deng school of seal carving came into being.
It is the most common seal stone originated from Nanfangshan and Shankou areas of Qingtian county, Zhejiang province. The ones with translucent jelly-like grains of “‘dengguangdong” • (lamp light jelly) and “fengmendong” (seal door jelly) are the best in quality.
It is from a place named Changhua in Lin’an county, Zhejiang province. The ones with pure and translucent jelly-like grains of “ou’fengdong” (lotus-root powder jelly) and “manaodong” (agate jelly) are the best, and the one with red grains, known as “chicken-blood stone” is the most famous of the kind.
The stone from Shoushan, Fuzhou city, Fujian province varied greatly in quality. The yellow Tianhuang soap stone is the most expensive, and the “baifurong” (white cottonrose hibiscus) and “yunaodong” (fish brains jelly) are the famous types, too.
