Last week, Hubby and I visited Mr. Liu, a Chinese artisan to order our soapstone chop carved with our family name in tensho (seal script). Today, Joyce and I went to pick it up in Chinatown.
I was a little disappointed that he didn’t provide a box to keep the chop in. Instead, he wrapped it in a paper towel and told me to find a nice box for it so I could keep it “for lifetime.” Luckily, I had a nice silk-covered box at home that Joyce had given me a few years back that would work just fine.
I was quite pleased with the result. In hindsight, perhaps we should have gotten a smaller chop, which would fit better on correspondence. This one measures about 2″ square. Hubby is now considering having a chop engraved with his family crest.
[tags]soapstone, chop, stamp, tensho, seal script[/tags]
Hmmm. Something looks funny. Are the characters in reverse order? Are they supposed to be that way? Or am I misreading them entirely?
@mitchell: They’re read from right to left.