Identification Help Please

[J-ROB]

If French manufacture, perhaps it is a code-mixed expression "Roy of I (or 1) from Roi for king.

King of my own castle sorta expression. One man riding free.

I venture this interpretation since the only glass seal on the page from Pimento has a Fleur d'Lis motif which put me in a French mode.

2Valen's point about seals on bottles of wine is a good point. Seems commonly done in 18th c. America.

 

 

[foreverteachable]

2 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

An early 1800's glass intaglio seal matrix.
It may be 'mourning jewellery' , it has that style, though so far I can't find a match.

Here's a page containing similar ones, including one with the 'spoked wheel' body design.

http://www.colchestertreasurehunting.co.uk/Postmedievalseals.html

Thanks so much! This is awesome!

[foreverteachable]

11 minutes ago, J-ROB said:

If French manufacture, perhaps it is a code-mixed expression "Roy of I (or 1) from Roi for king.

King of my own castle sorta expression. One man riding free.

I venture this interpretation since the only glass seal on the page from Pimento has a Fleur d'Lis motif which put me in a French mode.

2Valen's point about seals on bottles of wine is a good point. Seems commonly done in 18th c. America.

 

 

Holy smokes this is cool. Often I do a little research, show my finds to some friends or post on Instagram or Facebook then put them in my display case. I'm so glad I came back to the forum. The information and support here is amazing! Thanks!

[PimentoUK]

I'm sure the IOY is to be interpreted as JOY. It was normal in late medieval times, the letter J did not exist, but even into the 1700's the use of I continued.

Here's more similar matrixes ( matrices?) on the P.A.S database:
PAS_seals

A google image search for "intaglio seal matrix" throws up several pinterest pages of relevance, too.

Not sure about "the only glass seal on the page from Pimento ..."
I counted over 25 of them, it's a shame none are a match, I felt the intaglio inscription would be a common one.

It appears to be gilded brass/bronze. If you feel the urge to clean it, I would suggest a soak in a weak acid solution, with regular brushing with a soft brush, eg. worn toothbrush. There's likely to be lots of green deposits over the remaining gilding, and these should come off easily. There will be a point where the gilding is clean, which is the time to stop, too long in the solution will start to loosen the gilding. Soak in clean water afterwards, to remove acid residue.
For the acid, diluted lemon juice works, or citric acid powder, available in some food stores or look online.

[foreverteachable]

Thanks again for the wealth of information and for taking the time to put it together and share it.

[J-ROB]

12 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

I'm sure the IOY is to be interpreted as JOY. It was normal in late medieval times, the letter J did not exist, but even into the 1700's the use of I continued.
 

Yes, but ROY was a common spelling for the French Roi in that period also and that is one French word that most educated English speakers would have known. I am not sure that that is an "I" on the seal. Looks kind of FAT for an "I" or even "J." Closer inspection might help narrow this down.

Does "Joy of I" make any more sense than "Roy of I?" Maybe it is a literary reference? Otherwise, it is a bit odd either way, I think. Perhaps the scene depicted might offer clues?

As for glass being shown on that page, are they?...or are they agate, carnelian, and other stones? Glass would be molded, I believe, whereas stone would have had to have  been carved and engraved in reverse bas relief. Most of the seals on the page supplied, especially earlier Georgian ones, do not appear to be transparent in the manner of paste glass. My thinking is that mass produced glass items would be later and cheaper than artisan-crafted earlier versions.

If "mass produced" then the wording must have had some general currency beyond a weird one off. Who would buy it if it was weird and senseless?

Are the glass seals French or English made? They were more common on that side of the Atlantic for sure.

In 18th c America, I'd think a seal would be something that only rather wealthy folks would possess, whereas a democratization of the manufacture using molded glass would open up the market a bit. 

Anyway, this is all hopefully productive speculation on my part, as I am no expert on wax seals. I'm interested in that artifact though. Studying historical archaeology in graduate school, I developed a tendency to spin inferences  and strings of questions to check out via further research, often based on little or no preliminary evidence! 😎 Gotta start somewhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PimentoUK]

A bit of background info, including another example of the spoked wheel body design:
www.beachcombingmagazine.com

[2Valen]

Wineries have been around in the New England area for over 200 years, with the slogan joy of 1(one). About 75 years ago one of them moved to California.

The wax seal that you found must have come from one of the early wineries in the area.

I did forget to mention that the image would be the name of the winery, so you are looking for something that has a horse rider and dogs chasing something.

The time period that you really need to be checking is between 1790 and 1840 for the winery that was in the same area where you found it.

That is what I have found and believe that you will soon have your answer on where it came from.

[GB_Amateur]

Wine, France, New England.  I see a connection.  Apparently the French Hugenots were making wine as early as the 17th Century in New York's Hudson Valley, but commercial production didn't begin until the 19th Century.

[PimentoUK]

So could this seal have been used to mark the bottles of wine themselves, either on the wax sealing up the cork stopper, or applied to the bottle body?
Some vintage US wine for you:
Vintage bottles of plonk