Wax Seal Stamps
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| A collection of wax seal initials made from antique wax seal stamps in my collection, dated:1750 - 1974 |
Personal Wax Seal Stamps from 3500BC to Today
If I could
get back the hours I have spent scouring the earth for #antiquewaxseal stamps... well, I wouldn't really want them. I love the thrill of the chase, the hunt, and especially the catch.
To say I revere antique wax seals and other tiny tidbits of history is putting it mildly. OK, I hoard them. Not just because I can make silver wax seal jewelry using them, but because I lose myself in the history behind them and all the stories they have to tell.
The history of the wax
seal is long and romantic. They have served many purposes over
centuries. They have been used to identify a sender, authenticate
documents, and to insure privacy. Seals of one form or another were
used by royalty, government officials, religious entities and military
officers.
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| From my Personal Collection - I Have Drawers and Drawers of These! |
As a pre-teen and teenager
in the seventies, we were not quite as genteel as the Aristocracy. We bought our wax seal stamps in the “head shop” and used them as signs of the sheer grooviness of the times. Peace
signs, zodiac signs, dragons, unicorns, the moon and stars and the like. No proper letter to
a best friend at camp was sent without one... or six.
Seals have served as a stamp of indisputable
authenticity throughout history, just as a signature is accepted in the world
today. Seals can be traced back to the Old Testament, wherein it is written that Jezebel used Ahab’s seal to counterfeit important documents.
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| (From my collection) Ancient Turquoise - Turkish Carving Used as a Wax Seal |
The use of
seals can be traced all the way back to the world’s first civilizations, and
have been found in Mesopotamia; believed to hail from 3500BC. They were made with clay that was impressed with engraved
cylinders or rings.
In the Middle ages, when illiteracy was rife, wax seals were used to keep a letter closed, ensure it
hadn’t been tampered with; and confirm it was indeed written by the supposed
sender. However, widespread use of the seal did not really take off until
the post-medieval period.
In these years, they were used in place of a signature to
authenticate agreements, contracts, wills, letters or any act executed in someone’s name.
The
seal itself often bears a distinctive emblem or symbol specific to the sender. Because these seals were
symbols of power and used to authenticate a person’s wishes, they were
typically destroyed after the owner died to prevent posthumous forgeries. This is one reason why they are so rare today and so precious to collectors.
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| Several of My Beautiful Wax Seal Wheels from the Early 1800's |
When utilized in an official capacity, seals were sometimes placed directly on an official document
but were often attached in the “pendent style" so not to become lost. The seal was applied to a
cord, ribbon, or strip of parchment and hung loose after being threaded through
a hole or slot at the lower edge of the document.
(above) When the Swiss decided they were going to war, they
removed its wax seal from this Treaty for Peace that they had signed
with Burgundy in 1467. Look closely, you can see the two holes left by the
absence of the Swiss seal.
Wax
Seals in Private Correspondence
Seals were eventually used by families and individuals to seal handwritten letters. For a great part of our history, this was the only form of correspondence available to express ones deepest feelings and thoughts. I am sure many a Victorian-Era parent intercepted and cracked the waxseal of a letter from a suitor to an anxiously awaiting daughter.
Wax seals take me away.
I feel like an Austen heroine or a Dickens character. I can't help but envision a young, proper Victorian lady seated at her vanity, opening a letter from her beau with a wax seal that reads "Am I Welcome"? hinting that he soon shall be in her area of the country, and would love to stop in and see her. The wax seals pictured above are all from my collection. See the loops? They were often worn as necklaces, on charm bracelets or as watch-fob adornments so they were always handy.
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| Wax Seal "Etui" (container for double sided seals) from my collection - early 1800's |
The Disappearance of the Wax Seal
As travel,
emigration, and colonization increased, wax seals were not simply applied to
keep communication confidential, but as a practical necessity. Before the
British and American postal reforms of the mid-19th century, sending
a letter was quite expensive; it cost 25 cents in the US to send a letter over
450 miles – quite a lot in those days.
Furthermore,
postage was based on distance and number of sheets.
An envelope would
have counted as an additional sheet – and was considered a frivolous luxury
Letters were written on a folio of paper (a double-wide piece of paper folded down the center). The contents of the letter were written on the front side (recto) of the first leaf.
The second leaf of the folio wrapped around the
first leaf, forming a protective enclosure, which could then be sealed with
sealing wax and addressed to the recipient, thereby avoiding additional expense of an envelope.
The use of wax seals largely disappeared long
before the popularity of handwritten correspondence did. The disappearance
corresponds with the invention of the sticky envelope in the latter half of the
19th Century, when automatic envelope folding machines, and more
importantly, pre-gummed envelopes were developed.
After
postal reforms, the use of the wax seal slowly diminished. The cost of postage was significantly reduced and reforms changed its
basis from the number of sheets, to overall weight. Waxseals only added more weight, and thus, added more cost. Letter writing became much
more accessible to the masses and the sheer volume of letters being mailed increased fivefold, but sadly, not the use of the faithful wax seal.
The Wax Seal Meets Sterling Silver:
<<Check back for my next installment wherein I will be covering the making of wax seal jewelry from these historic relics >>
Custom, contemporary, reversible
Family Coat of Arms from Your Daily Jewels:
Thank you for visiting and reading!
<<< And, If you’re
interested in creating wax seals as in days of olde, check back for Part 3 when I will post a photo tutorial how to create a wax seal >>>
More Sources on the
topic:
1. The University of
Notre Dame has a large website showing Medieval Seals from their collection of facsimiles of the
originals.
2. Durham University
Library displays a collection of Medieval Seals 3. The History Box
web site, presented by a former head of seal conservation at the National
Archives, displays a range of seal facsimiles.
If you prefer a book, try:
1. A Guide to British
Medieval Seals
London: British Library and Public Record Office. A number of black and white
drawings of seals in this section have been derived from Bloom, J.H. 1906
2. English Seals London: Methuen and
Boutell, C. 1899 English Heraldry London: Gibbings and Co.
The
complete catalogues of seals in the British Library, or the British Museum as
it was when these antique tomes were produced, can be found on the Internet Archive.
