The Viện cơ mật or "Secret Institute", established in 1834, was the Privy Council and key mandarin agency of the royal court of Vietnam's final Nguyễn dynasty at Huế, until the end of the dynasty in 1945.

A seal, in an East and Southeast Asian context, is a general name for printing stamps and impressions thereof which are used in lieu of signatures in personal documents, office paperwork, contracts, art, or any item requiring acknowledgement or authorship. On documents they were usually used to print an impression using a pigmented paste or ink, unlike the wax impression commonly used in Europe.