Written by Lauren Galloway, student employee, Special Collections
Official military order of the Marquis Du Quesne, asserting his authority as the Royal and Military Commander of Louisiana and Captain of his Majesty's Navy, Governor and Lieutenant General to the King in all of new France and the territory and country of Louisiana, written and signed in Quebec on October 2, 1753. Â
When I was looking through our current exhibit on William M. Darlington, blobs of red color kept catching my eye among the beige paper and black ink. I realized that we had quite a number of wax seals attached to the documents. My curiosity was piqued, which (obviously) meant that there would be a blog on wax seals. So here it is.
First of all, we need to clarify something that threw me for a loop: the word “seal” can refer both to the engraved stone impressed upon a certain material, and to the impression itself upon said material. Special Collections has no seal stones that I know of, but we have many seal impressions. I will talk about both types of seals though.
Seals have been around for about 7000 years and have been used in many different cultures. There have been different styles and materials used, but the purpose is the same—to secure an individual’s property and to authenticate their approval. In fact, “In the Far East seals still have greater authority than a personal signature, which is not, on its own, considered to be legally binding.”Â
Close up of seal applied to the Official military order of the Marquis Du Quesne, shown above.
The study of seals is called sigillography. Traditionally, the design on a seal stone is intaglio, which means that it is cut below the flat surface, and the impression is made in relief, which means that it is raised above the surface. Occasionally a seal will work the opposite way though.Â
Seal stones range from simple to ornate, and are considered to be works of art in and of themselves, though they have a functional purpose. Usually, seals take the form of signet-rings or pendents, but there are desk-seals too. Seal impressions have been made on several materials, including wax, paper, lead, and even gold. Though other shapes have been discovered, seals are usually circular, with a design or picture surrounded by text.
Letter from James O'Hara to Devereaux Smith, April 8, 1777.
Applied seal is the term for a seal adhered directly to a letter or document. Wax seals on letters were meant to ensure that no one had opened the letter since it left the sender; the seal would be broken if that had happened. Although that has fallen out of use, applied seals on the face of official documents are the most prevalent use of seals today. The other type of seal is a pendent seal, which is attached to the document by ribbon and hangs loose. Red is the most common wax color seen on all of these seals, but sometimes different colors would be used for different functions.
A seal stone is either passed down from father to son, or destroyed upon the owner’s death.Â
Collon, Dominique, ed. 7000 Years of Seals. London: British Museum, 1997. Print. "Seal (emblem)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 07 Dec. 2014. Web. 01 Aug. 2014.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_seal>
