Translucent ‘jelly’ shoushan-stone seal topped by a squatting man leaning against a rock and clutching an object which resembles a bottle. We believe that the carver depicted the famous poet 'Li Bai' who is sometimes referred to as the ‘drunken poet’ because he claimed to have made his best poems when being intoxicated by wine. Our belief tallies with the nicely carved seal-print which is shaped like a gourd. Apart from symbolizing Blessings and Fertility, gourds were used to store wine while traveling. There is an eight-character inscription on the front of the seal which mentions the name of the carver ‘Huang Binhong’ (黄宾虹) who was born in 1865 in Jinhua in Zhejiang province (浙江 金华). Huang, who was a master painter of landscapes as well, used different names, for instance Yuxiang (予向) and Hongsou (虹叟) when signing his works. The artist died in 1955. The seal dates from the end of the Qing period (1644 – 1912). Height 5.9 cm. Width 3.1 cm. Depth 1.9 cm. Weight 52 grams.