Mr. King: The Malaysian Seal Engraver

30 Jan 2008 Category: Arts & Crafts, Features, Worldwide

Mr. King: The Malaysian Seal Engraver

Their actual size is tiny - prints of the intricate seals Malaysian engraver Ze-King Tham crafts every day (up to 15!)

While visiting the Malaysian city of Melaka recently, PingMag was lucky to stumble upon a small gallery in the middle of historical Heeren Street, aka Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock: King’s Seal Engraving. Ze-King Tham, introduced to us as King, is very proficient in the wonderful art of seals. PingMag shows you in utmost detail, how this craftsman actually makes these.

Written by Ian Lynam and Selena Hoy

To get you in the groove first: Malaysia is an amalgamation of ethnicities and cultures, a many-sided die making up a distinctive society. This manifests itself when one is walking down the street – in one instance, we found ourselves at an open-air food stand, inhaling impossibly cheap and delicious roti and dal under the benevolent gaze of the South Indian hawker. Sharing our plastic picnic table was a mixed group, all eating the same fare – a Chinese face, a Malaysian face, a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman – all chatting together and passing the bread basket.


It starts by sanding the stone flat. Ze-King Tham uses pyrophylite from China for making his seals. Pyrophilite comes in different hardnesses, colors, and qualities.

Next, the stone gets clamped for easier carving and stability. Then, Mr. Tham draws on the seal face, dividing the face into thirds or quadrants for optical balance.

Now, Ze-King Tham stems from quite a creative family (his father Siew Inn Tham is a prolific painter) and is an alumnus of the Kuala Lumpur College of Art. He has been making seals for over a decade and he has run the engraving shop, located in the Tham family compound that includes his father’s gallery, for over five years now. He is the main carver at the shop, though his brother often helps, especially with the preparation of the raw stone. In that time, Ze-King Tham has handcrafted over 2,000 seals in Chinese, English, Thai, Japanese, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Javi. Though some of his custom does come from the tourists that wander the narrow Chinatown streets, he also creates seals for locals, including one for an area Buddhist temple.

All characters are in place. Beautiful already!

Though he has his busy times, creating up to fifteen seals on an especially full day, Mr. Tham loves to play and experiment, creating fun and unique pieces for himself. He showed us scrapbooks with some of his favourites, including portraits, symbols, and graphics that deviate from the usual. In some pieces, he draws heavily on pop culture, professing a love for Japanese movie stars, English novels, and animation. In others, he looks to history: He is an avid student of the Chinese master seal carvers that are part of the Calligrapher’s Association in Beijing, and he also takes ideas from world history.

Next up, Mr. Tham carves all horizontals at the same time in the same direction. He thinks that his style might be unique in his directional technique. He uses a Hu Gung Tow no-angle knife to incise the stone. King says that there are a few other carvers in Malacca, but that they take a few days to turn around a seal, as they carve a stroke, turn the stone, and create the connecting stroke. His method reduces turnaround time.

Ze-King Tham signs each seal on the barrel. On the right, the careful signature on his handiwork.

What are we missing so far? Colour! Here, the seal is first inked and then applied on paper.

Finally, the packaging: He attaches a piece of paper inked with the seal onto each box.

The seals he made after the “Angels and Demons” motif, another novel by “Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown! We wonder if Tham also liked the book.

Assorted seal designs by Ze-King Tham.

And more of his own works. That are some interesting characters from history…

A collection of different types of seals that Mr. Tham admires.

Ze-King Tham’s business card.

Thanks very much to Mr. Tham and his family for their time, hospitality, openness to our inquisitivity - and for crafting us radical seals!

See his business card on the left. Please, drop by next time you are in Malacca, the jewel of Malaysia!

22 Comments

  1. So cool! I love it!!

    Posted by: Adriana on January 30th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

  2. Interesting indeed. I’m local and I never knew of such a trade in existence over here! There are however other trades that are equally impressive over here, but I gotta admit that this one is rather niche.

    Posted by: alanbernard on January 30th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

  3. p.s.- nice discovery indeed, guys.

    Posted by: alanbernard on January 30th, 2008 at 11:18 pm

  4. [...] feature on a certain Mr. King, here. Humbling. Story by Ian Lynam, look into his work here (studio in [...]

    Posted by: GEOTYPOGRAFIKA » Blog Archive » PingMag / Malaysian Engravings on January 31st, 2008 at 12:05 am

  5. I was at malacca a few weeks ago at Jonker st and i saw this guy’s stall!!He was busy explaining the meaning/significants of the art work..pretty awesome work eh! :)

    Posted by: abi on January 31st, 2008 at 12:08 am

  6. [...] Mr. King – The Malaysian Seal Engraver read about it on PingMag. [...]

    Posted by: ties’n things » beautiful craftsmanship on January 31st, 2008 at 1:30 am

  7. I gotta drop by Malacca the next time I head to Malaysia and get his seals. I have a few from China already and I really love them. Thanks for this!

    Posted by: Wee Keat on January 31st, 2008 at 6:24 am

  8. I got one made whilst working in KL ten years ago… Sweet memories…

    Posted by: Tomi on January 31st, 2008 at 9:18 am

  9. gasp
    I’m so surprised and delighted to see someone from Malaysia featured here! As a Malaysian and someone who reads PingMag regularly 5 days a week, I’m only too happy about it :D

    Keep it up, PingMag!

    Posted by: yuin on January 31st, 2008 at 2:46 pm

  10. Yahoo!! i’m from Malaysia too..
    “Malaysia Boleh”

    Posted by: vincent on January 31st, 2008 at 2:52 pm

  11. seems like alot of malaysian here. malaysia boleh, happy when i saw pingmag pop up the word ‘Malaysian’

    Posted by: AhTak on January 31st, 2008 at 3:28 pm

  12. [...] You can find many art galleries around tourist spots. One of it is King’s Seal Engraving gallery. PingMag shows you in very detail, how craftsman Ze-King Tham, often called only King, actually makes these. [...]

    Posted by: Design Enterprise » Blog Archive » Malaysian Seal Engraver on January 31st, 2008 at 6:42 pm

  13. I like the Evita and Angel/Demon ones! I also have some of these seals, but I got them from China.

    BTW, the phrase illustrating a mixed group - “a Chinese face, a Malaysian face, a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman” - is a bit funny as it could well refer to one person, as in a Muslim(religion)-Chinese(race)-Malaysian(nationality, not a race!) woman? Sorry, nitpicking!

    Posted by: May on February 4th, 2008 at 7:12 pm

  14. actually, malaysians are an ethnic group, too, as well as a race, to nitpick your nitpick. but i see your point. that was what i saw at my table, and i wanted to bring it up because it was such a cool representation of what i saw all over malaysia - people of different races, religions, and ethnicities coexisting and getting along pretty well. how would you describe the scene?

    Posted by: selena on February 6th, 2008 at 12:54 am

  15. Great article and great work over there, keep it up, king!

    Posted by: Michelle on February 6th, 2008 at 11:55 am

  16. i’m loving these seals, so beautiful and simplistic. great work of art

    Posted by: dendoo on February 7th, 2008 at 7:56 am

  17. [...] a website that reviews Japanese arts, design and sometimes design from around the world, reviewed a Melaka-based seal-engraver named Ze-King Tham, or Mr King. He does the usual Chinese seals, but also creates seals in other languages (quote: “English, [...]

    Posted by: Hilmyworks » Blog Archive » Malaysian seal engraver reviewed by Japanese design site on February 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am

  18. [...] PingMag » Mr. King – The Malaysian Seal Engraver Ze-King Tham stems from quite a creative family and is an alumnus of the Kuala Lumpur College of Art. He has been making seals for over a decade. Tham has handcrafted over 2,000 seals in Chinese, English, Thai, Japanese, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Jawi. (tags: pingmag art engraving woodcraft handcraft seal engraver malaysia chinese melaka) [...]

    Posted by: links for 2008-02-29 « Hic Sunt Dracones on February 29th, 2008 at 4:20 pm

  19. yeap..he’s located in front of Geographer…opposite Ringo. He’s very talented. Malacca Rocks!

    Posted by: chen on March 17th, 2008 at 1:42 am

  20. i am malaysian working in manchester.

    love the article.

    Posted by: din on June 12th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

  21. anyone knows how much it cost?

    Posted by: shin on October 3rd, 2008 at 4:22 am

  22. ROCK!!! Ze King, great to see u being feature here!!!! GREAT JOB!!!

    Posted by: siau hooi on February 13th, 2009 at 7:07 pm

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