Seal or stamp * bronze with a coat of arms with a shield made of a lion holding a scale, wearing a crown of Vicomté, probably one of Saint-Antonin (Midi-Pyrénées), wooden handle of the eighteenth time century.
This seal is in good condition. Old collection label on the sleeve.
A note: wear time on the seal, tiny accidents and wear on the shaft, see photos.
We offer for sale a large number of seals from the same collection on this site.
Collection object whose oldest examples date back four millennia BC. The seal was first used for affixing the personal stamp of a 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 can be an intaglio ring mounted in a hard stone, or a gold kitten engraved hollow (the signet rings are something else!). But there are many more-fitted seals, made of a hard stone engraved intaglio: carnelian, garnet, sapphire, rock crystal, agate; some are even ancient intaglios. These little pills are sometimes jewelry that is dangling from a chain or the chatelaine; such as boxes, it is often a gift item. These fees vary in size: one is in the tiny embedded in beautiful frames of chased gold, other 1.5 to 2cm in diameter mounted on a handful of gold, of primping, chased silver, nacre, hard stone, wood ...
** Arms: in terms of heraldry and collectibles, rather they say "weapons". For an object being emblazoned is a quality that can be a source of a slight gain. A coat of arms surmounted by a crown of count or marquis, always flatters the vanity of its owner. The presence of weapons is often a sign of quality and allows to establish the provenance of an object, however, provided to engage in a heraldic research. (See Larousse antiques and flea market).