MEDIEVAL SEALS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 43, 6 March 1937, Page 17

MEDIEVAL SEALS

Some Over 700 Years Old

A small selection of notable medieval seals, eome of whjch are 700 years old, was on display in the Huntington Library in Oalifornia and included the seals of Edward Ifl, Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth. Each English sovereign had a great seal, a prjvy seal, an a signet. The great seal was used for important State papers, the privy sea! for the king's own business and for matters not requiring tlie great seal, and the signet tor his private letfers and grants, prior to affixing the privy seal. Bntil after fche middle of ihe foxxrteenth century tlie keeper of tlie privy Beal was a member o.f the kjng's household. Keepers went abroad with Edward III, whose victories in Franj© caused him to :add to his title, "King of France." In the Huntington Library exhibition was a great seal, in green wax, • of Edward III, which is a good oxample of the Gothic style of the fourteenth century. A fine impression of Queen Elizabeth' s great seal, in bronze-coloui'ed wax, appears on a i-elease dated Jan. 25, 1588, to Henry, Earl of Huntington, of the manor of Ashby de la Zouclie, in consideration of an annual payment of £600 for 18 ^cars. Tlie front side ia an eq ucsir'nn > of "Good

Queen Bess" and on the back she it shown seated, and dressed in state. Henry VHi's great seal is affixed on a grant to the church wardens of Christchurch of ]the Priory Church thore. The document, dated Oct. 23, 1540, begins with an ornamental "H" with a portrait of the King in Ms state robes. The seal, in brown wax, has the equestrian portrait of the King on the obverse. JDescribing the method used in seallng thes6 important state documents, Capt. R. B. Haselden, curator of manuscripts at the Huntmgtan Library, said : "The wax used in the seal was first softened by immersion in warnx water. It was then flattened into discs, one being placed in each half of the matrix, wMch had first been rubbed with oil or soapy water. The matrix wMcli transferred the impression into the wax was usually made of silver for the royal or more important seals, and was engraved in intaglio. "The tongue of the document was pl.iced between the two discs and pressure applied to the two halves of the matrix, bringing them together, and forcing th© superfluous wax out along tho cdge to be trimmed off with a loiifo. Ti'e sea] was then har&ened in c ohl \. ;i i -r ''