Seal Box

Made in the imperial Chinese workshops, large, elaborate seals presented in luxurious boxes were among the gifts bestowed on a number of Tibetan dignitaries who traveled to China’s capital for audiences with the Xuande (r. 1426-35) and Yongle (r. 1403-24) emperors. This presentation box is one of the few known to have survived to the present day, and was possibly given to a Tibetan hierarch in the early 1400s. It is decorated in the engraved gold technique (qiangjin) with a mythological creature called a qilin reclining in a sparse landscape. The auspicious mythical beast is regarded as an emblem of divine justice and the embodiment of princely virtue. The association of the qilin with both divine justice and virtuous rule made it an appropriate gift for political exchange.