This double chop was one of the first pieces in the collection. It was acquired in Holland in 1968. The carver used the colors in the jade to give the qilin on the top a slightly lighter shade than the two blocks which form the seal. The two characters puzzled us for years. 'Experts' told us that they were definitely European and there was even one so-called 'expert' in Hawaii who believed that it was a modern piece created in Hong Kong for tourists. But sometimes you need a little bit of luck. Recently we discovered a book in China which showed a chop with very similar characters. They appeared to be Manchu characters which ties in with the date of the chop which we found in another book, namely Kangxi (1661 - 1722). The riddle is almost solved. The characters are indeed Manchu, but we still haven’t found out what they mean. Length 4.4 cm. Width 2.2 cm. Height 3.8 cm. Weight 49.0 grams.