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Medieval Seal & Mount Finds

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking all of the Weekend Wanderers members who have given me permission to display their finds on this web page.

This page was last updated 15 December 2006

Rob from Southend found this seal matrix and he thinks it may be medieval and rare.

The imprint shows a figure with arm stretched and incredibly when you turn the matrix upside down it shows a bird with a sprig in its mouth.

This lovely Saxon Stirrup mount was found at a recent club dig in Surrey by John Heath.

Thanks to Mick Sammons for sending me the 2 pictures above of a very nice example of a Vesica seal, Mick found the item on a recent WWDC dig in Bedfordshire.

Mick has been in touch again as he has been able to translate the Latin inscription and it reads + S'Amabili vxiohs' D'  which means Seal of Amabell wife of John D? amabell is derived from latin Amabilis (loving) and is later more commonly found in the shortened form Mabel uxor is Latin for wife.

Paul Shields found this lovely Fob Seal Matrix on a recent Buckinghamshire club dig.
The pictures below show the face and the impression it makes.

Paul says .....This matrix might be a small 18th century seal (Georgian) roughly 1720-1780. It has a central stone surrounded by a bronze gilded ring. The ring has two small holes in it where something would have attached. (This would be at the top and bottom of the object as shown in the picture)

Steve Westfield found this lovely seal on a recent Buckinghamshire club dig.
The pictures below show the seal and the impression it makes.

Steve thinks the seal is Roman, Do you agree or know different ?

I have had an e-mail from Jim Haliday - Thanks Jim.
Jim states -"The first picture on your seals page is a Georgian fob seal matrix from a watch chain, a poor man's fob in copper-alloy. If the owner had been wealthy it would have been gold or silver. The head on the impression would have been an important man of the time or a classical head from someone in history.

Sorry I can't make it Roman, still a nice find though".

Paul Baker sent me the picture below of a lovely seal he found on a recent club dig.

Paul said " It was about 6-8 inches deep and gave a great signal.
       It has been on my wants list for about 15 years so you can imagine how excited I was".
        Paul uses an Explorer XS which he has owned for 3 years.

Thanks for sending the picture Paul.

Thanks to Ian Mitchell for sending me the picture below of this vessica shaped seal found on a recent WWDC dig in Bucks.

Ian tells me the seal is 34mm long by 22mm wide with a small loop on the back at the top. he front shows a man with his arm across his front and he thinks is holding a branch with a bird and there appears to be a dog in the bottom right corner.

WWDC member Peter Brown sent the following pictures of his mid 19 century 6 sided seal.

Each one of the seal's six sides is decorated with a portrait of a famous man. The men depicted on the seal are Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788-1824), John Milton (1608-1674), Sir Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge of Lahore (1785-1856) and William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (1779-1848).

Thanks go to Ian mason for sending me he picture below showing a recent find of his on one of our digs.

Ian said "  This was a fabulous site.  The ground was very quiet with little or no junk.  When a signal occurred it was usually something good.
I enclose a picture of an unusual Medieval pendant.  This probably had a third leg or
fitting for a further hanging pendant.  It retains some red enamelling
and shows a lion rampant (or griffin?)". 

Simon Neal sent me the scan below of his recent find.

Simon had the find looked at by the British Museum and  they told him that the find is a Roman mount incorporating a Celtic trumpet design.

The picture below unfortunately doesn't do justice to the lovely little Georgian fob seal found on a recent Weekend Wanderers Buckinghamshire dig.

Thanks to Mr Witcombe for allowing me to show his find here.

Many thanks to Mark Spinney for sending me the pictures below of his recent Weekend Wanderers dig find from Hampshire.  

The pictures show a Medieval seal and the impression it makes.

Shane found the lovely little silver seal above with his Tesoro on a recent wanderers dig.  Well done Shane.

Another excellent picture sent to me from Weekend Wanderer's member Julian Barber. A much nicer background than his last effort, don't you think !!.

Julian found this lovely matrix seal with his XLT whilst out searching for buttons the other day.  Julian asks if any one can help him identify this seal, he wonders if it is a private or traders seal and he tells me that part of the inscription reads "PRIVI". Any further information would be appreciated.

Thanks for allowing me to put the picture on the web site Julian.

Thank you to Mike Chambers for sending me the lovely scan below of a matrix seal found near Thame Oxon with his Laser B1.

 Mike was wondering if there are any experts out there that can positively identify this lovely find.

Mike has received the following information about his seal, thanks for letting me know:-

The matrix is of a standard shape, and probably dates from the 14th or 15th century. The legend is frequently found on seals; the French PRIVE SV (literally "private I am") meaning "Private".

However, although the legend is a common one, the device is not. Working with a mirrored image of the matrix, i.e., what the impressed matrix would have produced, one has what appears to be the combination of two, originally separate, coats of arms, suggesting a marriage; the arms on the left are those of the husband, those on the right of the wife.

The strange beast on the left appears to be a wyvern, a mythical creature with the head, upper limbs and wings of an heraldic dragon, and a snake-like tail ending in a barb. Records of wyverns in heraldry are fairly sparse, and although there are some of the creature segreant (i.e., rearing up, as in this case) I can find no record of such a creature with wings closed (close) and looking backwards (reguardant), hence cannot suggest a possible owner.

The beast on the right-hand side is a lion in the rampant position; this is, in fact, the same position as segreant is with the wyvern (compare the position of the upper limbs), but different terms are used for the two beasts. Unlike the wyvern, the lion is extremely common in heraldry, particularly the lion rampant, and without either information as to the colour of the lion and its background (which can be portrayed on seals by fine hatched lines which represent colours depending on their direction) or an exact find location, it is impossible to even hazard a guess as to the wife's family. Your comment that the piece was found near Oxford, however, does raise one interesting possibility; there is a record of the Tame family of Oxfordshire using argent a wyvern (sometimes a dragon) vert combating with a lion rampant azure crowned or many years later. Although these are not the identical arms (see illustration), they have sufficient in common with the matrix to suggest that they may be related.

Note that words in italics above refer to specific heraldic terms

Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club member Dave Phillips has made some fantastic finds over the years.  Some were on club digs and some were on Dave's own sites.  Dave has agreed to let us display some of them here for you to see and hopefully to help identify some of them, if you have any thoughts on any of these please e-mail us and I will pass the details on to Dave 

Dave has been told that the item above is a George 1st or 2nd Fob seal. I have included 2 pictures of the seal taken from different angles so you can see it all.