Hong Kong, stamp or signet maker along the street

Hi there,

I remember when I was enrolled into a Primary School a personal stamp\seal made out of wood or animal bones (including ivory, but more common cattle bones) was made for some authentication purpose on school documents.

Academics would use these stamps\seals for personal or leisure use as some sort of identifications, on papers, drawings, most anything and everything.  I believe Banks today still accept such stamps\seals as signature for one's bank account.  Insecure if the Banks do not check the identify of the bearer though.

What's being shown in the photo are likely stamps\seals made from stone, or from metal.  They are usually carved in the ancient scripts, likely a form of 棣書 or 篆書 (both could be dated back to the Chin (秦)Dynasty.   Such craftmanship is called 金石學 (literraly means craft of stone and metal).

There are still such street vendors in town.  You could find a concentration of them in Sheung Wan along Man Wa Lane.  There are other vendors at other tourish attractions or at Yue Wah Department Store in Jordan Road, or Wah Fung China Products at North Point.  If you fancy making one it may cost you an arm or a leg if you elect to get one of the more expensive stones, but usually stone seals start from a few hundred bucks plus labour.

T