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Very nice seal or stamp * silvered bronze, representing the Virgin Mary with outstretched arms decorated with a monogram, XIXth century.
This seal is in good condition. Perhaps trace of a punch in the back?
A note: wear and soiling of the time, see pictures.
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* Stamp: collectible copies, the oldest dating back four millennia BCE. The stamp was first used to affix the mark of a personal character to ensure the contents of a box or envelope, the authenticity of a document. It also also used the term seal. The little personal touch is indeed used in Europe since the Middle Ages. It may be a ring mounted with an intaglio of hard stone, or a gold bezel engraved hollow (the signet rings are something else!). But there are many-fitted seals, made of a hard stone engraved intaglio: carnelian, garnet, sapphire, rock crystal, agate; some are even antique intaglios. These little pills are sometimes jewelery that is dangling from a chain or the lady; such as boxes, it is often a gift item. These fees vary in size: it is in tiny embedded in pretty frames of chased gold, other 1.5 to 2cm in diameter mounted on a handful of gold, of primping, chased silver, pearl, hard stone, wood ...
