Signet Matrix: Seal Matrix featuring Mirror, with inscription

A rounded rectangular signet matrix made of purple glass. This matrix bears an image of a mirror, with an inscription in French around it, and dates from c 1775.

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.