Bashu bronze seal with a tiger knob Full view

This rectangular seal with a tiger knob has Bashu (present-day Sichuan) symbols inside an oblong frame, all in intaglio. At the top are two spears connected by an arrowhead, and underneath is a frog in the middle with two pairs of indecipherable symbols at the sides.

In the Warring States period, not only the Chinese in the Central Plain used seals, seals of the South-western tribes like the Bashu are known. Besides a small number of stone seals, they are made mostly of bronze. Seals appear in square, rectangular and round shapes, and have by and large a simple ring knob though certain variations like animal knobs are known. Unlike the traditional Chinese seals of Han characters, Bashu seals distinctively feature pictorial elements including human figures, plants, animals, tools, weapons and geometric designs. Scholars, with differing views, think they are pictograms, symbols, totems or clan emblems. Bashu seals in existence are rarely known. There are a very small number of heirloom pieces published in books and no more than some tens of artefacts were recovered from excavation in the last five decades. Tiger knob is very rare among Bashu seals. The Ba people believed that they were offspring of the white tiger. Being their ancestor, tiger was a sanctified symbol. Therefore, seals with tiger knobs probably belonged to the tribe leaders, nobles or kings.

This bronze seal can be dated to the mid/late Warring States period for the upright spears and the double bent symbols are identical to Bashu seals unearthed from mid Warring States period burials in Sichuan provinces including Jianwei and Yingjing.