Signet Matrix: Seal Matrix with inscription

A rectangular seal matrix, dating from c 1800, and apparently made of blue paste, swirled with white. Its inscription, which consists of two lines, suggests that it may have been intended as a love token.

Seal matrices also known as signet matrices were used to impress their owner’s mark into wax on documents during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many were made of moulded translucent glass. Little is known of their manufacture. They seem to have been produced for personal rather than commercial use. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery acquired a collection of twenty-seven seal matrices in 1934. This is one of the items.