Use of と見える in this sentence


I understand that と見える can come after a noun, a verb and an i-adjective and
means 'seems'. Could you please provide some simple examples of how to use
this construct with a **noun**? I can't think of an example where this would
be meaningful.

For i-adjectives does the following examples have different meaning/nuance
おいしいと見える and おいしそうだ

Also, I can't figure out how it works in this quote:

> 私には本物の若殿様がわかります。
>
> 若様は手習いのあとと見えて、手に墨がついております。」
>
> I know who the real young lord is. _**It seems it is after**_ the young
> lord's writing practice and his hands are stained with ink.

In this case と見える doesn't come after noun, verb or adjective and my
translation sounds very clumsy. Thanks.




と can be used with either a sentence or a noun.

[code]

    with 思う
    彼は正しいと思う (with sentence, "[I] think he is right")
    これを形見と思う (with noun, "[I] think of it as a keepsake")
    
    with 見られる
    地震が原因で倒壊したとみられる (with sentence, "[It] collapsed probably due to the earthquake")
    地震が原因と見られる (with noun, "the earthquake is probably the cause")
    
[/code]

～と見える means "it seems that...". However, it is considered very formal or old.

[code]

    先生はお忙しいと見える (with sentence, "The professor seems to be busy.")
    先生は多忙と見える (with noun, same meaning)
    
[/code]

Some more... 彼はなかなかの秀才と見え、あの問題を一瞬で解いてしまった (he seems very talented, and solved
that problem in an instant.) やつはなかなかの堅物と見える (that guy seems too serious)

Your example

[code]

    おいしいと見える
    
[/code]

is correct but very unnatural, because it combines informal/conversational
(おいしい) and formal/historic (～と見える) words. (By the way, おいしいと見える is
sentence+～と見える、with the sentence's subject etc. are let out).

That said, the difference between ～そうだ and ～と見える in

[code]

    先生はお忙しそうだ
    先生は多忙と見える
    
[/code]

is that, as I already said, the latter is much more formal (but not 敬語. The
polite version is 先生はご多忙とお見受けする)

[code]

    若様は手習いのあとと見えて
    It seems it is after the young lord's writing practice,
    
[/code]

The meaning of あと is "after," but grammatically it is a noun in Japanese.

