Sir Thomas Spencer's Chinese seal.

Sir Thomas Spencer's Chinese seal. Dr Robert Plot (1640-1696), first 'Custos' of the AshmoleanMuseum Ashmolean Museum:see under Ashmole, Elias. and the man who installed Elias Ashmole's collections atOxford University, was one of the most noted antiquaries of the 17thcentury and 'the genial father of County Natural Histories inBritain' (Gunther 1939: 333-56). In 1674 he persuaded theUniversity authorities to testify that he 'being studious stu��di��ous?adj.1. a. Given to diligent study: a quiet, studious child.b. Conducive to study.2. to makesearch after the rarities both of Nature and Arts afforded in theKingdome for the Information of the Curious' they 'approve ofthat his ingenious undertaking' (Gunther 1939: 345-6; see alsoMendyk 1989: 193-205). The Natural History of Oxford-shire (1677) andThe Natural History of Stafford-shire (1686) were the outcome of thisresearch: in each he dealt with natural history first, proceeding fromlandscape to plants, animals and people, and ending with arts (i.e.crafts) and antiquities. At the end of this final chapter in theOxfordshire volume, Plot described in three paragraphs, numbered 138-140(1677: 356-7), two oddities which he considered recent compared with theprehistoric to medieval monuments that occupied the bulk of his sectionon antiquities (original spelling has been preserved, but italicizationof English words removed):138. There are some other Antiquities of yet later date, that I havemet with in Oxford-shire also perhaps worthy notice, such as that oddbearded Dart, Tab. 16. Fig. 7. having the beards issuing from it, not asusually one against another, but one lower and the other higher . . .the stem of it being wood, and not very hard neither, I cannot affordfor it to be above 200 years standing, or thereabout: Nor can I add moreconcerning it, but that it was found somewhere about Steeple Barton, andgiven me by the Worshipful wor��ship��ful?adj.1. Given to or expressive of worship; reverent or adoring.2. Chiefly British Used as a respectful form of address. Edward Sheldon Edward Brewster Sheldon (b. 1886, Chicago, Illinois; d. April 1 1946, New York City) was an American dramatist. His plays include Salvation Nell and Romance, which was made into a motion picture with Greta Garbo. Esq;139. Yet the stone engraven Tab. 16 Fig. 8 dug up in the garden, andnow in the possession of the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas SpencerBaronet baronetBritish hereditary rank of honor, first created by James I in 1611 to raise money, ostensibly for support of troops in Ulster. The baronetage is not part of the peerage, nor is it an order of knighthood. , a most cordial Encourager of this undertaking, can scarce beallowed so ancient as that, the Character upon it in Rilieve work beingcertainly China: For unless we may imagine it brought thence thence?adv.1. From that place; from there: flew to Helsinki and thence to Moscow.2. From that circumstance or source; therefrom.3. Archaic From that time; thenceforth. in the daysof King AElfred, by Swithelin Bishop of Sherbourn, Qui detulit adSanctum Thomam in India Eleemosynae Regis Aluredi, & incolumisrediit, i.e. who carryed the offerings of King Alfred to the Church ofThomas in India, and returned safe, we can by no means allow it to havebeen here, 180 years; that Country having been quite lost again to thisWestern part of the world, till Vasquez Gomez was sent by Emanuel Kingof Portugal to make new discoveries, in the year 1497. In which year,though he recovered the way again to the East Indies East Indies,name formerly used for the Malay Archipelago, but also more restrictively for Indonesia and more widely to include SE Asia. It once referred chiefly to India. , yet FernandusAndradius discover'd not China till 1517; so that provided thisstone (which is very unlikely) were brought thence by some of Andradiushis company the very first voyage, yet it can be (with us) but 160 yearsstanding.140. As for the Stone it self. it is of an odd kind of texture, andcolour too, not unlike (to sight) to some sort of cheese, exactly of thefigure and bigness as engraven in the Table; and most likely of anything to have been one of their Togru's, or Stamps, wherein thechief persons of the Eastern Countries usually had their names cut in alarger sort of Character, to put them to any instruments at once,without further trouble. That they have such kind of stamps, is clearlytestified by Alvares Semedo, in his History of China: They Print, sayshe, likewise with Tables of stone, but this manner of Printing servesonly for Epitaphs, Trees, Mountains, &c. of which kind they havevery many Prints; the stones which serve for this use being also of aproper and peculiar sort, as ours seems to be: So that in allprobability the letters on this stone contain only the name, and perhapsthe office, or other title of some person of Quality, and therefore hardto be found out; and that it was brought hither by some Traveller of theHonorable Family of the Spencers, and either casually lost, orcarelessly thrown out as a thing of no value.141. And thus with no small toil and charge, yet not without theassistance of many Honorable Persons, whose names in due time shall beall gratefully mention'd, I have made shift to finish this specimenof Oxford-shire . . .The accompanying Plate 16, engraved by M. Burghers, consists of threeregisters [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED]: in the upper and theright portion of the middle register are the Rollright Stones, labelledas nos. 1-3; the rest of the middle register shows a hexagonal hex��ag��o��nal?adj.1. Having six sides.2. Containing a hexagon or shaped like one.3. Mineralogy font withblind arcading from Islip (no. 6), 'three Rings linked one withinanother . . . not like to be British or roman . . . of three differentmaterials; the largest copper, the second iron, and the least greenglass, or some stone of that colour . . . they must be either Saxon orDanish' (Plot 1677: 345; no. 4), and a gold bracteate pendant foundat St Giles Field in Oxford and in 1677 in the possession of Sir JohnHoleman in Northampton (no. 5). The latter is now in the AshmoleanMuseum (on loan from the Bodleian Library), and MacGregor & Bolick(1993: 5, 154-5) note its 5th-century date, its possible Scandinavianmanufacture, and that 'it is the earliest-recorded discovery ofsuch a thing in England'.The middle register is divided from the lowest by the 'beardedDart' (no. 7); neither this, nor any of the other small objectsaccompanied the bracteate into the Ashmolean Museum - or, if they did,are not there today (Arthur MacGregor pets. comm. 1996) Their presentlocation, and even continued existence, are unknown.The lowest register shows the Chinese stone (no. 8), flanking thearms of Sir Thomas Spencer (1638-1687, the third baronet) and adedication, as 'one of the Noblest Encouragers of this Essay This16th Table of some of the ANTIQUITIES of OXFORDSHIRE whereof where��of?conj.1. Of what: I know whereof I speak.2. a. Of which: ancient pottery whereof many examples are lost.b. Of whom. the lastwas dug out of HIS own grounds'. Those grounds, while unspecified,were probably at Yarnton, just north of Oxford, the Spencer seat in thecounty and close to the University.The stone is drawn in perspective, to show two inscribed faces, oneon a long side and one on an end, together with one plain long side;since Plot's description does not specify otherwise, it seemslikely that these were the only two inscribed faces. As engraved, thepiece is 52 mm high and 24 mm across; if the drawing is indeedisometric isometric/iso��met��ric/ (-met��rik) maintaining, or pertaining to, the same measure of length; of equal dimensions. i��so��met��ricadj.1. , then the third dimension is 22 mm, near enough square incross-section like modern Chinese seals or chops.Most personal seals in historic China would be engraved on the base,the only part actually used, with the owner's name, and on the leftside usually with the name of the engraver and the date, place andpurpose of the engraving: many seal-cutters were noted calligraphers,and the signature conferred status on both the seal and its owner.Neither inscribed face of the Spenser seal bears an individual name,however: the characters on the long side can be read from top to bottomas bao, 'prevent someone from invading, protect'; si, the nameof a river in what is now Shandong province in eastern China; and ji,'story, narration'. The overall meaning is 'A story ofprotecting Si River from invasion'. The end inscription is readwith the plain side (bearing the number 8 in the engraving) at bottom:the right-hand pair of characters spell out Xi-he, 'westriver', the name of an ancient province. The character at upperleft is jim, 'province', and at lower left ji, 'story,narration', as on the front face. The overall meaning is 'Thestory of Xi-he Province'.Although there is no doubt that the Si River is in Shandong, thelocation of Xi-he province is more problematical: at least six arerecorded in the Chinese annals, one each in Western and Eastern Hantimes (206 BC-AB 220), one in the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-280),one in Eastern Jin (AD 317-420), one in the period of the Northern andSouthern Dynasties (AD 420-581) and one in the T'ang Dynasty (AD618-907), an overall span of some 1100 years. Except for the Eastern Jinperiod, when Xi-he is named in southern China, the province of this namewas somewhere in the north, quite possibly in Shandong although this isnot certain. We can, however, place the province named on the seal intothe T'ang period with some confidence: the use of the term jun fora province is confined to the Tian-Bao period (AD 742-758) within theT'ang Dynasty; otherwise the term zhou was used. The style of thecalligraphy calligraphy(kəlĭg`rəfē)[Gr.,=beautiful writing], skilled penmanship practiced as a fine art. See also inscription; paleography.European CalligraphyIn Europe two sorts of handwriting came into being very early. is also consonant with a T'ang date, and the regularityof the script is characteristic only of the period from Eastern Jintimes onwards; earlier styles were imitated widely in the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911), however, in an antiquarianizing enthusiasm that ran fromShang bronzes to Ming vases, and it is entirely possible that theSpencer seal was a contemporary carving of mid 17th-century date.The seal was not a 'chop' or personal signet, but seems tohave been a book stamp. It is possible that the 'Story of the WestRiver Province' was the title of the book, stamped on its cover,while the 'Story of Protecting the Si River from Invasion' wasused inside the book for a chapter relating this specific tale. Anotherpossibility is that the two titles relate to two different books,engraved on the same seal to save stone: these would often be engravedquite shallowly, and could then be removed by scraping down and thesealstone recycled for a different title. What is curious, however, isthat the inscriptions appear as they would be read, not in reversedmirror-image, as one would expect for a printing block. Perhaps the sealwas made for display by a proud T'ang author, not for actual use,or to mould negative impressions that could then be printed correctly;or, if a Qing imitation, made thus to be easily read.The seal itself has vanished: Sir Thomas Spencer had no male heir,and while the title passed to a Shropshire cousin, the estates weredivided among his daughters and co-heirs (Complete Baronetage bar��on��et��age?n.1. Baronets considered as a group.2. The rank or dignity of a baronet.3. A list of baronets.Noun 1. I: 69).One other mystery remains, and seems unlikely to be solved: how did thisobject, more than seven centuries older than Plot imagined, get fromChina to Oxfordshire, and finish up in Sir Thomas' garden?Acknowledgements. We thank Garter Principal King of Arms Garter Principal King of Arms is the senior King of Arms, and the senior Officer of Arms of the College of Arms. The office takes its name from the Order of the Garter. Henry V of England instituted the office of Garter in 1415 just before sailing for France. (Mr PeterGwynn-Jones CVO CVO Chief Visionary Officer (corporate title)CVO Cascades Volcano Observatory (USGS)CVO Commercial Vehicle OperationsCVO Chief Veterinary OfficerCVO Custom Vehicle Operations , FSA FSA Financial Services AuthorityFSA Food Standards Agency (UK)FSA Farm Service Agency (USDA)FSA Financial Services Agency (Japan)), Mr Arthur MacGregor FSA, Professor Jean WilsonFSA, and the Althorp Estate for their assistance.ReferencesComplete Baronetage. 1900-1906. Exeter: William Pollard & Co.GUNTHER, R.W.T. 1939. Early Science in Oxford 12. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.MACGREGOR, A. & E. BOLICK 1993. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: asummary catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon collections (non-ferrous metals).Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British series 230.MENDYK, S.A.E. 1989. Speculum Britanniae: regional studies,antiquarianism an��ti��quar��i��an?n.One who studies, collects, or deals in antiquities.adj.1. Of or relating to antiquarians or to the study or collecting of antiquities.2. Dealing in or having to do with old or rare books. , and science in Britain to 1700. Toronto: University ofToronto Research at the University of Toronto has been responsible for the world's first electronic heart pacemaker, artificial larynx, single-lung transplant, nerve transplant, artificial pancreas, chemical laser, G-suit, the first practical electron microscope, the first cloning of T-cells, Press.PLOT, R. 1677. The Natural History of Oxford-shire. Oxford: Printedat the Theater.1686. The Natural History of Stafford-shire. Oxford: Printed at theTheater.