your fate is sealed....

as well as the two german wax seals, i recently picked up another seal. i happened upon it quite by chance, so i see it as fortuitous. i did manage to contact someone who is knowledgeable about these things, and got a rough market value, and some information.

the seal is likely a cast steel stock item, that was then hand engraved by a skilled engraver. the time period estimated for the piece is likely early British Victorian (The Victorian era spanned roughly 1833~1901).

one of these days, i'll bite the bullet and pay to have someone who deals with heraldic symbols to translate this seal - the possible history of it intrigues me. seals were generally used as identification. letters or documents were sealed to prevent/show tampering, and guarantee the identity of the sender. when the owner of a seal died, the seal was generally destroyed as well to prevent (what i guess equates to in these days) identity theft. i imagine they weren't terribly common either, as they were probably fairly expensive to have made, and not really required by the working classes.

i myself wonder if this was for a wedding ban - as it appears to be two family crests hung together by a tied ribbon from a crown, and wreathed by some type of flowering vine.

quite an amazing amount of detail, given that the oval is just over an inch at it's longest point.