Recently, Xinchang Museum and Ningbo Museum jointly held the “—— Chinese Ancient Seal Exhibition” in Xinchang Museum. This exhibition displays 178 square (sets) seals selected by his father Qin Kangxiang for many years, from the Warring States Period to the Qing Dynasty, of copper, jade, teeth and stone. The exhibition introduces the historical origin and development and evolution of the seal, and shows the characteristics of Chinese seal culture and the aesthetic connotation of Chinese traditional art.
Qin Bingnian (1933-2015), born in Shanghai, his ancestral home is in Ningbo, he is a Chinese collector, cultural relic scholar, and a lifelong researcher of Tianyi Pavilion Museum in Ningbo. In his early years, the family ran a banking industry in Shanghai. His father Qin Kangxiang was a master of seal cutting in Shanghai, a famous collector and seal cutter in Shanghai in the Republic of China, and a member of Xiling Seal Society. His seals were rich in types, high quality, and high artistic and historical value.
It is worth mentioning that the treasure of the Xinchang Museum is also a seal. The frozen stone deer button seal of the Southern Song Dynasty is currently displayed in the exhibition hall on the first floor, “Dreamwalking Tianmu —— Xinchang History and Culture Exhibition”. The stone quality of the seal is Yingrun rice jelly, on the end of the seal with a deer button, the seal is “Lu Yuan (homonym)” two characters. In ancient times, copper, silver, gold, jade, glass, crystal, rhinoceros horn, elephant, tooth, bamboo, wood and so on were mostly used as printing materials. After the Yuan Dynasty, stone seals were prevalent, so there were fewer stone chapters in the world before the Yuan Dynasty. This seal of the Southern Song Dynasty rewritten the history of Chinese seal cutting, which advanced the use of Wang Mian in the Yuan Dynasty to the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty and advanced it for about 200 years. This seal has high historical research value and is a national first-class cultural relic.(Xinchang Museum)