were very frequently used as personal seals during the middle ages. They were ordinarily set in silver, and surrounded by legends suggested by a mistaken interpretation of the subject represented[1], or containing the name of the owner. Few of these relics belong to the best periods of classic art; they are chiefly of late Roman character; but occasionally a fine specimen may be met with. It should be remarked also, that although impressions of such seals are often in a high state of preservation, the subject of the intaglio is generally in very faint relief; owing probably as much to the inferior quality of the wax used in early times, as to the superficial cutting of the stone itself. These gems are easily recognised by the peculiarity of the impression they leave, arising from the convex surface which the ancients usually gave to precious stones intended for signets. A catalogue of the subjects of all intaglios of which ancient impressions are known to exist in England, would form a curious and, possibly valuable, contribution to glyptographical knowledge. In early times they were looked upon as pagan amulets, and destroyed, but soon found favour owing to the intrinsic value of the stones, and were frequently, and often most indecorously, employed to decorate shrines and sacred ornaments. Perhaps the earliest instance of the use of an antique gem as a personal seal is the secretum of John, as earl of Mortaine, before noticed; it represents a male bust, which a learned friend has conjectured may be intended for one of the later emperors. There is, I would observe, some reason for believing that engraving on precious stones, in imitation of the antique manner, was sometimes essayed by medieval artists, who were encouraged in their attempts by the high value which doubtless attached to such objects. An example, of very rude execution, in blood-stone, the device being a cock, was recently found at Thwaite in Norfolk, and is now in the valuable cabinet of Mr. Fitch of Norwich; it is in a silver setting, apparently of the fourteenth century[2]. It
- ↑ See the description of several antique intaglios, particularly of a cornelian, with a medieval legend, in the possession of Mr. Barton of Woodbridge, Suffolk, in the Archæological Journal, vol. iii. p. 76. The counter-seal of Roger, archbishop of York, who died in 1181, is formed of a gem representing a chimera with three heads; the legend is allusive to the Holy Trinity. It is engraved in the first volume of the Vetusta Monumenta.
- ↑ The legend is, ✠ IOhANNƐS CHRISTI ĀMICƐ. Mr. Fitch possesses also another relic of similar character; it is the personal seal of Gilbert de Hulcote, date thirteenth century; the device is a sea-horse engraved on blood-stone; setting of silver; this intaglio, however, is apparently late Roman.
